Can you be too thin to breast feed?

[missbumpy]

I'm going through a hard time at the moment and am very stressed and weight has been dropping off me ever since I gave birth (10 months ago). I'm now slipping into the underweight BMI category and I've noticed my breasts don't seem so full. Worried that I don't have enough fat in my body to make milk! Can someone please tell me I'm being stupid!

Also worried about all of my stress somehow affecting the milk. Can stress hormones get into the milk? OK, I'm sounding like a maniac now! Any answers?

But serious stress is different to a sudden shock.

As far as I know, no it doesnt.

Sudden shock can indeed have an effect on let down - I have often said this on Mumsnet and I have supported mothers through a temporary crisis in milk 'availability' a few times. It can feel that there is literally no milk there - this crisis (and it's always a serious, sudden shock like bereavement, or a terrible fear like being in a road accident) is short-lived, fortunately.

It's a different bio-chemical profile to chronic stress.

Kama, you said 'Stress won´t affect the actual milk, but stress CAN affect how much milk you produce. '

Both of those statements were wrong, and I corrected you, politely.

Just to re-iterate, sudden shock is different from constant stress, and does not really depend on the person.

Sudden shock produces a massive surge of adrenalin, which 'blocks' oxytocin.

I have seen this explained in terms of teleology (the science of making sense of evolutionary change, or of assuming there is a reason for things being the way they are). It goes like this: imagine you have to run from a predator (if you are a lactating cave woman!!). You don't want to be leaking milk and leaving your smell everywhere. So Nature makes sure there is no chance of you doing this, and makes adrenalin icompatible with oxytocin (needed to make milk available to the baby).

Stressed people produce adrenalin, too, but at much lower levels which the body's functionining can easily cope with.

It would be crazy, evolutionarily-speaking, if stress affected the nutrition of the next generation who depend solely on mum's milk to grow and flourish. Stress, and quite a lot of it, is normal for the human race. But we do not, and have not, normally lived in a constant state of terrible fear or grief - it's the suddeness of the experience that has the effect.

kama - I haven't 'argued' with your experience at all! You shared your mother's experience of sudden shock, which you said was like your own, and I have said this does affect milk availability.

Sheesh.

Of course things are different for different people, and no two people will have exactly the same experience, and more importantly, remember it in the same way. This is one of the reasons for looking at studies which try to get at the facts as objectively as possible, and to look at measurable things like quality of milk, volume of milk, presence of stress hormone, availability of milk, mother's biochemistry.

The article you have linked to does not in any way undermine what I am saying - in fact, it backs me up.

What you told the OP was incorrect and misleading. All you have to do, if you wish, is say 'sorry, got that wrong' instead of trying to suggest I argued with you about your experience (which I didn't) and instead of producing links to articles as if to undermine me - when the article in question says nothing I disagree with

kama, the article does not say this at all. It says the opposite - that stress is something we live with and which does not affect milk supply (except temporarily in severe cases). Read it again.

kama, I think not. I was not talking about late for work stress either, and neither was the OP.

Please drop it.

OK, kama. I understand. Your first intervention was misleading and incorrect. You have clarified since then, thanks.