Is it ever physically impossible to breast feed?

[ThePowerof3]

I know that there can be a lot of mental barriers to breastfeeding but what are the physical ones? Is it ever possible for someone's milk not to come in?

I really hate the myth that its always physically possible to breastfeed. It is another stick to hit new mothers with when they are battling to feed their newborn and to make them feel inadequate.

It is definitely possible for it to be physically possible not to be able to breastfeed, although I had to make my health visitor put that the reason for me stopping physical on a form. I fed no problem initially but then very little milk came in. I fed and fed and fed and then tried to express in between feeds but no more than 20ml ever came out (and often less). Baby dragon was losing weight so I was told I had to switch to formula.

I lost a lot of blood at the birth but have been told that my mother was unable to produce much milk either so it could be genetic.

I think that the lack of advice around formula feeding is ridiculous, as is the way some health professionals treat new mothers who don't (for whatever reason) breastfeed. New mothers, particularly first time mothers, have just gone through a life changing experience which is physically and emotionally demanding. They should be given support regardless of their choices and to me this means been given correct and full information on formula feeding.

some people genuinely can't get their head round non bf they think all you need to do as pop baby on and away they go and it is all blissful and happy for many many women it just isn't like that at all,

DonDraper, but until fairly recently, there was nothing like our current taboo on women feeding other women's babies, and presumably groups of women would be able to feed one another's children when necessary. And of course using a wetnurse was pretty common among the more privileged classes in this country and elsewhere, I think originally (at least among the aristocracy) partly so that the women weren't prevented from conceiving rapidly again. And at times with significant infant mortality, there would have been an over-supply of lactating women.

My grandma could nt breast feed her first child [this was in the 1930,,s] he died at two weeks old badly under nourished. with her second he was completely bottle fed with my mum and my other uncle she tried for a few weeks but gave up as they were also becoming undernourished so breast feeding was certainly a problem for her, incidentally grandma died over ten years ago her remaining three offspring are all in there late 60,s early 70,s I ignore people who say anybody can breast feed as its utter crap would they like to be left with a dead baby like my grandma because of their principles?

I started off BF with no issues at all but once my DS got to about 10 weeks he just never seemed to be full for long and feeds got closer and closer until at 12 weeks we were barely going 15 minutes between feeds and he just always seemed hungry, I started trying to express in between but was barely getting anything out. I was going through a very tough time and my Health Visitor advised that it seemed like my milk had probably started to dry up which can be known to happen in times of extreme stress and given what I had been going through she was surprised I had managed it for as long as I had but said that maybe it was time I considered changing over to formula. I swapped to formula and the the difference in how much more full and thus content he was was almost instantaneous, within just a couple of days he was sleeping through the night 8 - 7 most nights and my milk very rapidly vanished altogether.

That's so sad

X2boys

"And at times with significant infant mortality, there would have been an over-supply of lactating women."

That's a good point.

Even I donated to the hospital at a time when I was still struggling to get it into dd; my supply was just ridiculously high.

In olden times there was a greater openness towards the idea of matching supply and demand.

I acknowledge all of those factors, shrugged, but they're all interventions implemented after the fact to compensate for something that is so fundamental to human survival. Yes, I'm sure women did rely on other women feeding their babies, and yes, of course infant mortality was much higher than it is now.

It just seems odd that humans have to go to such lengths to ensure their infant offspring are fed, in a way that other mammals don't seem to have to.

I didn't BF either of my two DC.

I tried with DS - I couldn't get the latch right, and he was starving. Screaming hungry. Because the latch wasn't right, I had blisters and scabs on my nipples and they bled every time he fed and it was agony. I gave up after a week as the only support I got was to be told by a midwife that if I was on a desert island I'd find a way to do it

DD arrived early, not much (was 8lb 4 when born and we were both discharged within a day) but early enough that my milk hadn't arrived. I didn't notice at the time, but when I was expecting DS in late pregnancy I would wake up with slightly leaking breasts and my bra stuck to me etc and this didn't happen with DD.

After being sent home the community midwife noticed my BP was dangerously high, so I was readmitted to hospital but there was no room for DD - it was too important for me to wait for a bed space for her, so I went alone while DH & my mum looked after the DC. My milk arrived while I was in hospital but by the time I was discharged, she just wasn't interested at all.

I think I had PND at the time & I was definitely struggling to bond with her after the separation so I didn't express. I had no support and I wish I had persevered now. I don't feel guilty anymore (DC are 9 & 11 now) but I did for a long time - I felt ashamed, which I now think is daft.

Please don't get me wrong though - to reiterate, I fully, 100% support women choosing (or defaulting) to whichever feeding method they want.

I put HUGE pressure on myself to breastfeed, and even though I succeeded, I believe it was what contributed to me teetering in the edge of PND.

Presumably our ludicrously big brains and inadequate pelvises are in some way to blame Don Draper? Our babies are born young and comparatively stupid when contrasted with other mammals, so we have to do more of the work of looking after them after birth and our wider social groups have to do more of the work of looking after the mother in order to make this possible.Thankfully we are social animals with strong kinship ties which makes this possible.

Haven't read all the posts so sorry if it's been said already.

I can't find the link to the facts/study/article but I remember clearly the percentage of women who can't physically produce breast milk stands at around 2%.

There are a lot of other factors that come into play when a woman doesn't succeed when she wants to though. Lack of correct advice, and lack of support from those around her to name a couple.

DonDrapersAltrEgoBigglesDraper Tue 30-Jul-13 10:49:58
"I acknowledge all of those factors, shrugged, but they're all interventions implemented after the fact to compensate for something that is so fundamental to human survival. Yes, I'm sure women did rely on other women feeding their babies, and yes, of course infant mortality was much higher than it is now.

It just seems odd that humans have to go to such lengths to ensure their infant offspring are fed, in a way that other mammals don't seem to have to."

Mammals can struggle with breastfeeding too; it is not at all uncommon for primates to struggle or for fox cubs or piglets to succumb to malnutrition. (or indeed for pigs to eat their offspring rather than feed it- at least humans don't often do that).

And when we come to survival rates of offspring of the lesser vertebrates, they are often in the 0.x percent range.

I don't know what the IABU part of your thread is OP.

Breastfeeding didn't work for us, a combination of lots of things that nearly saw us both back in hospital. It was the breastfeeding support midwife that advised us to just use formula in the end.

I'm not even sure we'd have managed it with better support, but the only support that was available to us was a forty minute car journey away, longer in heavy traffic, and that's just not sustainable several times a day.

first time round i had placenta accreta and didn't deliver all of my placenta till 9 days after the birth. i also needed 3 litres of blood transfused. i had virtually no milk and gave up even attempting to mix feed after a couple of weeks because i was exhausted and stressed out of my skull trying to do both breast and bottle.

second time round i just had 2 litres of blood loss but my milk still didn't come through properly - after 4 weeks i was told i had to either take medicine or supplement with formula. taking medicine meant going to hospital 25 miles away when i still wasn't driving following CS so i used formula. still mix-fed till 6 months though.

in both cases my milk came in but just not enough!

meimhors said, ''The thing is with b/f - everyone feels they have the right to 'judge'"

This is just not true.....'everyone'??? A tiny minority only, and if anything judgmental is said on a mumsnet thread, it is jumped on very quickly. Even people who have breastfed without problems know, on the whole, that feeding babies is emotional and sensitive territory and that no one should be judged.

But the myth that large nos. of people go around judging persists. A thread last week accused people of judging and criticising when there was not even an inkling of it. A couple of people asked the 'accuser' what they meant, which words, which posts, which poster, was criticising, and never got a response.

You're right SarahAndFuck the thread is in the wrong place I think, how about IABU to ask if or am I BU and nosy!

mammals can have babies that die from lack of milk they can get all the problems women get and the mammal babies die,

Come to think of it, doesn't James Herriot spend half his time in soggy fields giving ewes injections for their milk to come in?

My milk never came in properly ,thankfully baby cafe midwives came across some research around pcos/ivf/thyroid causing problems for some women. I did everything I could ( pretty similar to shrugged ; DS did feed using the supplemental feeding system, but I really do not know how much milk he got.

So true MrsJay

Presumably our ludicrously big brains and inadequate pelvises are in some way to blame Don Draper?

Yes, presumably. Given that this is widely known and acknowledged.

Again, it's just odd that millions of years of evolution hasn't corrected these things...

I'm just musing, really. If I didn't know better, I'd assume our supreme Maker was a man.

Evolution is a trade-off, Don. If one feature gives a better overall chance of perpetuating the species, then it will be maintained at the cost of another feature that is important but not quite so important.

Remember evolution is not about the survival of the individual, it's about the adaptation of the species to changing circumstances and sometimes that will come at a high cost to individuals. Evolution doesn't care.

Big brains mean that 5% die in childbirth but 7% are protected from predators that would otherwise have killed them before they had a chance to reproduce= big brains are here to stay.

(random figures)

I understand all that. :)

It's just a bit crap that we women really got the fuzzy end of the lollipop on the design flaws front, re childbirth and breastfeeding.