Does your milk not come in if you don't breast feed from birth?

[StepDoor]

I'm just wondering what happens if you formula feed right from the start I.e when the baby is born. Does your milk just not bother coming in?

Milk production is triggered by placenta coming away so yes milk does come in

It will still come in and you'll get rock hard uncomfortable boobs when it does. Some cultures hold off on breastfeeding until the milk comes in, it's all driven by hormones for the first few weeks. The giant boobs will last a couple of days, you can use cabbage leaves to help them go down, you can also express a little bit off to relieve the pressure, but that will prolong it for longer.

Yes it does I remember a painful couple of days with huge boobs but I didn't touch them and they just went down.

So is it a matter of going through the whole process of drying up the milk?

Thanks!

Yep, it's not really a process, you just leave them to it. Cabbage leaves just help reduce the soreness.

Bertie, when I went cold turkey on breastfeding (baby fed about 10x in 24 hours), it was very painful for 2-3 days. Just wondering whether this would be the same.

My mum said that her milk never came in both times. She didn't try bf at all. So in a sample of 1 it's possible that milk production doesn't start without stimulation?

I don't know, it might be different if you had an established milk supply. But 2-3 days sounds about right. You could express a tiny bit off to relieve the pressure which would probably add a day or two to the time it takes but be careful not to empty the breast because that would stimulate more milk production. You could try taking decongestants like lemsip as well because that's supposed to dry up milk supply, but please disclaimer, I am not a doctor! They contain paracetamol as well so might help with pain, but I don't know if they're advised. Obviously anything which could make you drowsy is a bad idea if you're in sole charge of a newborn.

I never felt engorged, and never felt as though milk really came in. I was desperate to bf but baby wouldn't latch- inv nipples/ tongue tie combination. He lost lots of weight and I ended up expressing/ formula top ups. now at 9 weeks, really getting next to no milk at all. so maybe the no stimulation theory is correct.

Not usually, sorry, it's possible for that to happen but it's rare. OP says that she experienced the big, painful boobs before so it's likely that will happen again.

My mum ff all 3 of us and said that the doctor gave her a pill to 'take the milk away' 43 years ago!

Yeah, they don't give that any more as it can have unpleasant side effects - tends to be reserved for, eg, women who've had stillbirths/late miscarriages.

There are a few individual cases in the literature where the mother's milk does not come in at all - so it seems to happen in very rare instances. The mother still has colostrum, even in these cases. Lack of stimulation, when there is no milk removal at all in the first days, does seem to delay milk coming in, and may reduce the supply. usmama, sorry things did not work for you - presumably you have/had some milk, as you are/were able to express, rather than no milk at all.

Physiologically-speaking, milk production happens because when the placenta is delivered, the body produces prolactin, the milk-making hormone. This early milk production is not dependent on the baby actually feeding. Continued milk production does depend on the milk being removed.