What if I get no milk?

[lucielooo]

Currently only 25 weeks pregnant and not noticed any changes in my breasts since being pregnant. A friend was telling me about how she didn't get any milk when she had her daughter so had to FF from the start.

Also just reading a pregnancy update and it was saying that at 25 weeks I would be ready to go with feeding if my baby was born now.. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't!

Is this something I need to worry about? Is there anything I can do?

Sorry if this sounds silly, but I have no idea about bfeeding at all!

[tiktok]

lucie no, it's not something to worry about.


No one's milk is there until 1-5 days after the birth - how sad your friend did not know this, and what on earth were the midwives saying/not saying to her?

Noticeable changes in the breasts are common in pg, but by no means everyone spots them, and certainly not by 25 weeks.

You will be starting to make colostrum soon, but you may not ever see any evidence of this.

Colostrum is there until 1-5 days after the birth, when the milk 'comes in' - see www.kellymom.com/bf/supply/milkproduction.html for info.

Is it possible for you to have a chat with a midwife about your concerns?

[poppydog10]

I can understand your concerns but Please don't worry I learnt that about 98% can produce milk. Milk production is triggered by the removal of the placenta after birth. Milk 'comes in' 3 ish days later, prompted by lots of suckling from your baby from birth. Before this time your baby will not need much - his or her stomach is only the size of a small marble. To ensure you do have a good supply try to avoid formula top ups, feeding to a schedule or spacing feeds and use of a dummy and let the baby suck at the breast as much as he or she wants.

[Cosmosis]

as above Lucie, very very unl;ikely you'll get no milk. I found reading the threads on here and also Kellymom site really helpful to prepare myself for BF.

Good luck with the rest of your pregnancy and the new baby! :)

[organiccarrotcake]

madam well done you!

[lucielooo]

Oh that's good to know!

That firstly, I can't tell yet if there's likely to be any problems, but there's no reason to think there should be, and even if there is a problem it could be fixable.

What a lovely, helpful lot - thank you :)

Really pleased it worked out ok in the end Madamdeathstare did your doc prescribe the drug? If so, it's interesting that they'll do that, I assumed it would be one of those like or lump things.

tiktok it's 30odd years since she had her baby so I think things were dealt with differently, and by the sounds of it, it is possible. I don't think she was really bothered though as it was all about formula around that time.

I start NCT classes in a while and I think they cover breastfeeding so hopefully all will become clearer, but it's just been playing on my mind. Once I've got through the birth books, it'll be onto learning about breastfeeding - so much to think about, all very exciting though!

[coldtits]

Things were dealt with differently in the 80s. My mother was told she '#had no milk' and she thought "Well, that's that then" and put me staight onto formula.

[Shallishanti]

amazing (and so sad) that women were told and believed that they have 'no milk'. What other bodily process is routinely just not working? It's like being told, no, sorry, you can't digest food, here eat this predigested stuff instead.

[organiccarrotcake]

Quite, shalli. Things to think about, OP, are that "rules" that your friend, MIL, grandma(s), mum, etc may come out with are things like only feeding every 4 hours, or you're not doing it right if your baby doesn't go 3-4 hours etc. My MIL's classic comment, when DS2 was a couple of months old, was, "isn't he on 4 hourly feeds yet? [YourDH] was on 4 hourly feeds by 6 weeks - mind you my milk dried up then so he had to go on the bottle".

Totally and utterly oblivious to the fact that the "4 hour rule" is what CAUSED her milk to "dry up". Very sad.

As poppydog says it's the placenta coming away which triggers the hormones which make milk, so therefore your body is probably ready right now but WAITING until that moment. What's the point of making it now. Sure, some people do get a bit before birth due to hormones floating around but that makes no difference to the amount you make post birth.

[festivefriedawhingesagain]

I didn't notice any change in my breasts at all when pregnant - they didn't get bigger, or sore, or anything. DS still feeding now and just turned two!

As PP said, very very unlikely to have a problem with milk supply, best thing is just to offer the breast very very often to help get the hormones flowing.

Congratulations on your pregnancy

[organiccarrotcake]

Sorry, I wasn't clear there. What I meant was, a lot of BFing is unintentionally undermined by people bringing their experiences from some years ago which are now known to be not the way to achieve successful BFing.

[Shallishanti]

yes, even my DM, who was actually v pro bf and bf me and DB talked about 'the 2 oclock feed' the '4 oclock feed' etc....and I just used to think....'whhattt?'

[Cosmosis]

Oh yes my step mum bf both hers and they were on a schedule, as that's what you were told to do in the 70s. Amazing anyone managed to keep at it really! (although she does confess to ignoring the clock on occassion)