Incorrect advice from Hv?

[smk84]

So I think this is not true, having read bits and pieces on here but....

"if you don't eat properly, your milk will be like water and won't fill him up"
" if you are not well rested and stressed, your brain will tell your body to stop producing milk"
She was trying to encourage me to take care of myself, so her heart is in the right place, but .... The last thing I need is to be stressing about how stressed I am ! Is there any evidence anywhere that diet and rest have no impact on bf, or is it just anecdotal? Thank upon.

It's true that you do have to eat properly and get enough rest, but it's probably more for your benefit. I think just like in pregnancy the baby gets first dibs on nutrition etc so if you don't rest and eat well then your body will be depleted of things like iron and calcium.

Thank you z. Another interesting thing she said was that milk expressed in the morning shouldn't be given in the evenings because it contains "awake hormones". Has anyone heard of this before?.

i'm not sure I've Hurd of awake hormones. But it is true that the sleepy hormones are higher in milk in the evening so milk expressed in the morning, doesn't contain as much of this hormone.

"if you don't eat properly, your milk will be like water and won't fill him up"

Wrong, and scarily wrong. If an HCP says this, it is one of the ways you know they are not qualified to support bf mothers.

" if you are not well rested and stressed, your brain will tell your body to stop producing milk"

Ditto. Serious shock and/or acute anxiety can interfere with let down, temporarily, not because of the brain but because of hormones released by the body that 'block' hormones needed to let down milk. Mothers throughout history have breastfed during times of stress and hard work - that has been the most common state-of-body-and-mind for most of the time humans have walked the earth.

I have not heard of 'awake hormones' in morning milk, and if they exist, it does not mean the baby shouldn't actually get the milk in the evening.

Here's an idea: can you say 'some of what you have been saying conflicts with what I have heard and read elsewhere - can you point me to some written information so I can read it for myself?"

Thanks miggril and tiktok I thought it was dodgy info. Next time I see her I should mention it as she must be telling other people these things. Interested Blythe sleepy hormones maybe I shoud express a bit off for myself when I am struggling to get to sleep hehe!

You don't need to do that, just feed your baby as your body also produces hormones in you to help you fall asleep when feeding. it's one of the reasons why night time feeding is so tiring.

:)

The "awake milk" thing was in the papers when I was BF DD1. Since I was giving her milk expressed at 9am each morning as her 1am dreamfeed, and it seemed to be working, I just ignored it...

You can produce less milk if you're tired - I think many women supplement in the evening because their milk seems to have run low, which is maybe because they're tired. From my own experience I know that I have very little milk in the evening (7pm), so LO gets a bottle of formula instead, and then by 11pm I have enough milk to feed him.

I've always found that the more water I drink, the more milk I produce. If I don't drink any water all day (just tea etc), then I don't leak. But if I drink water regularly throughout the day, I tend to leak from the other side while feeding and leak at night too.

In the evening your milk is higher in fat and lower in water so volume-wise there isn't as much, but calorie/fat/nutrition-wise there is plenty, and its more satisfying millilitre for mililitre.

Thank you, it's good to know your experiences :)