Why my mum says her milk 'dried up' after few weeks?

[MiaMamma]

Hi, I just have one question - why women who had their babies in 70's and 80's say their milk supply dried up after few weeks?

My mum and her sister both say that they weren't able to bf after two weeks, they just 'didn't have any milk'? What did they do wrong then? They're both convinced they didn't do anything wrong, 'it just happened' but I'm sure it's not the case. I would like to explain them but I don't really know the reason myself.

Truby King was a mentalist who thought newborns should be left outside in their prams to scream, is that right, Mears?

The weaning thing is interesting - my great aunt was amazed that I was giving DS1 any food before he was one. But how did they get to nine months on bfeeding with all that scheduled/timed feeds and water in a bottle nonsense?

Fascinating stuff - thanks for the long post, Mears.

Yes he believed that babies should be outside in the pram as much as possible.

" Ofcourse if you own a balcony or porch, baby will be better outside all night than inside."

"...baby on no account should be allowed to sleep in the same bed with his mother. Not only is there the risk of death rough overlying, but baby becomes more or less poisoned by breathing the breath of his mother, and by rebreathing his own breath over and over again"

I remember my Nana telling me about Uncle somebody crying a lot, so her mum used to put him in his pram at the end of the garden & just get him when it was time to feed.
My Mum (60's kids) was going to try to BF, but I think fell foul of the rubbish they were told. When it was me she didn't even try to BF, as she said "she couldn't do it".
I had my ds here in the Bahamas - it was a good experience in general (as much as it could be!!!) but he was born at 3am, I was in my room at around 330 - at 335, they came to 'take him away'. I said no, I wanted him to stay with me, & the mw looked so shocked. No-one helped with latching on, but he spent most of the night on my boob!! I went home the next day, & although I did go through the whole panic of 'is he getting what he needs' managed to stick with it. My Mum thought I was feeding too often, but I gave her some books to look at, & she ended up saying she was proud of me for sticking with it.
Sorry this is so long...

My long post must have put everybody off!!

Fascinating Truby King info Mears. Loved the later weaning but at the sleep info. Enemas FGS.

The Lothian issued baby book is a similar "you what" reading experience. Fascinating stuff though and makes it really clear where all the contrdictions with todays info comes from.

mears - or was it mine?!!!

Very interesting thread.
My mother was/is very pro breastfeeding and as a midwife in the '50s and '60s she helped many women establish breastfeeding. BUT She was working in South Africa in poor parts of Johannesburg and Capetown and getting women to breastfeed was important to midwives there at the time as formula was expensive and water not so clean in those areas - not necessarily because it was the better option for the baby IYSWIM?
HOWEVER for the white middle classes of SA the 'done thing' was the 4 hourly stuff and babies in nurseries in hospital for 10 days being brought to the mother every 4 hours for feeding - when time was 'up' (5 minutes each breast type thing) the baby was topped up with formula by the midwives then put back in the nursery while the mum slept/read mags/received visitors.
My mum had 4 children ... she breastfed my siblings for 6 weeks and then started weaning them on baby rice and formula (as 'they were hungry') mixed with a tiny bit of marmite because 'it was so bland and tasteless'
She had to stop breastfeeding me at 3 weeks due to a 'nervous breakdown' (read that for PND which 'didn't exist in my day'!) and I was put on Formula then weaned like the others on Marmite at 6 weeks .
When I had DS she was fantastic in helping me establish breastfeeding at the beginning but at the same time was very 'encouraging' when I sadly decided to give up at 6 weeks (although luckily I didn't take her advice regarding baby rice and marmite!) and clearly thought I was mad for breastfeeding DD for nearly a year!

It is purely a generational thing .... what she thought was right and normal at the time changed hugely over 30 years .... I expect in 30 years time our daughters will be in mumsnet saying something about the crazy things we did to them ...

Interesting isn't it.

My mum spent the whole time I was pregnant with dd telling me "you mustn't be too disappointed if you can't breastfeed, lots of women can't you know" over and over again until I told her to please stop going on about it.

Then, when dd was born and AMAZINGLY bfing was going well, she kept on at me that "you must give her bottles so that dh can feed her and not feel left out".

Dd now 2 years old, still bfing and never had a bottle. I think I was even more determined to bf due to my mother's attitude.

at an enema! What does she mean by "humanised milk" in the bit about weaning?

my milk dried up , i put it down to my own lack of nutrients and bad diet , i was so hectic that i never ate properly . i always feed on demand and more so when i noticed i wasnt producing enough. i believe it does happen and that some women cant breastfeed