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"More importantly, some mothers just cannot produce enough milk" - Is there any anecdotal evidence to prove this. One lactation consultant told us that this cla

by deepGem 12y ago

"More importantly, some mothers just cannot produce enough milk" - Is there any anecdotal evidence to prove this. One lactation consultant told us that this claim is totally false. According to her, all women who give birth can and will produce enough breast milk and she had the evidence to prove that.

jwdunne 12y ago
My wife's mother was unable to leave hospital until my wife put on weight. My adopted son lost tonnes of weight and only gained after bottle feeding. My daughter simply could not be taken away from the breast. That was enough for me to make a decision that breastfeeding my second daughter was impractical. EDIT: I do say "produce" but it may not be as simple as that, again it's complicated. Production may not be impaired, but perhaps the ability to dispense might be. There may be some matrilineal genetic factor present that prevents a baby from latching properly or taking enough milk. I'm not an expert but there are a few stages in the process where things can and do go wrong.
- deepGem 12y ago
  This is precisely what the lactation consultant said. So, my wife couldn't breast feed for the first couple of months and we assumed that she couldn't produce enough milk. We went to this consultant and all she did was to change the feeding position by a small degree. After that our daughter fed happily. The problem was not with production but with the latching technique and I wouldn't be surprised if this is the case with many women. I do have a bias against bottle feeding because of our personal experience stated above.
EliRivers 12y ago
According to her, all women who give birth can and will produce enough breast milk and she had the evidence to prove that. Bullshit (not you; her). The only way to prove that, given that humans are messy biologicals and not a mathematical equation, is to line up every woman who ever gave birth and demonstrate that each of them produces enough milk to feed said child. A single counter-example (of which there are many) demonstrates that she's talking rot.
dagw 12y ago
I would love to see that evidence, since I have plenty of anecdotal evidence that it is bullshit. And what's even worse, all the people pushing this nonsense do a lot of damage to all the women who cannot produce enough milk, since all it does is make them feel like failures as mothers. Which is not a good state of mind to be in when someone just dumped a new born baby in your lap and basically says "here you go, this human being lives or dies based solely on your actions".
DanBC 12y ago
I wonder what she says to women who've had mastectomies?
UnoriginalGuy 12y ago
She sounds like a real peach. Honestly that opinion seems more colored by her political views (i.e. breast feeding good, formula evil) than any scientific or medical evidence. I've met lactation consultants just like that, and they often go into diatribes about how hospitals/doctors are evil and push formula on new mothers (which wasn't true at all, in fact the hospital we used had a nurse specifically to help mothers breastfeed and offered heavily subsidised classes). While getting started with breastfeeding is hard and mothers should be encouraged to keep at it. Some mothers simply never produce, even after trying that hard, or that long. At a point you're putting your child's life in danger if you keep trying without results (and, no, I do not mean after just a few hours -- that's normal, I mean days). Honestly I'm pro breastfeeding but I find a lot of other pro breastfeeding people insufferable. No, sorry, but people are in fact good mothers or fathers if they use formula. No, sorry, they aren't automatically ignorant if they use formula. No, sorry, you or your child aren't superior because you breastfeed. No, sorry, it really isn't appropriate to approach random people in the street and lecture them on why they're raising their child wrong.
- patja 12y ago
  Is "breastfeeding good, formula evil" really a political view? It is not hard to find cases of formula being promoted over breastfeeding to the detriment of infant health and development. Case in point: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nestl%C3%A9_boycott http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nestl%C3%A9_boycott
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
patja 12y ago
Surely some mothers cannot produce enough milk, but this is the rallying cry justifying reverting to formula, much as "the baby was too big" is the rationalization for cesarean delivery. Surely it is true in some very small percentage of cases, but it cannot explain away the measured variations and choosing the sub-optimal path. Everyone has their own anecdote, but they can't all be biologically incapable of breastfeeding. Take the CDC's data for example: http://www.cdc.gov/breastfeeding/pdf/2014breastfeedingreportcard.pdf http://www.cdc.gov/breastfeeding/pdf/2014breastfeedingreport... When you see breastfeeding at 6 months rates by state that vary from lows in the 30's to highs in the 60's, biology can't explain it away. And from the Surgeon General's report on Barriers to Breastfeeding ( http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK52688/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK52688/ ): "Concern about insufficient milk supply is another frequently cited reason for early weaning of the infant.90,113–116 One national study on feeding practices found that about 50 percent of mothers cited insufficient milk supply as their reason for stopping breastfeeding.112 Having a poor milk supply can result from infrequent feeding or poor breastfeeding techniques,115,117–119 but lack of confidence in breastfeeding or not understanding the normal physiology of lactation can lead to the perception of an insufficient milk supply when in fact the quantity is enough to nurture the baby.120,121"

by deepGem 12y ago

jwdunne 12y ago

My wife's mother was unable to leave hospital until my wife put on weight. My adopted son lost tonnes of weight and only gained after bottle feeding. My daughter simply could not be taken away from the breast. That was enough for me to make a decision that breastfeeding my second daughter was impractical. EDIT: I do say "produce" but it may not be as simple as that, again it's complicated. Production may not be impaired, but perhaps the ability to dispense might be. There may be some matrilineal genetic factor present that prevents a baby from latching properly or taking enough milk. I'm not an expert but there are a few stages in the process where things can and do go wrong.

deepGem 12y ago
This is precisely what the lactation consultant said. So, my wife couldn't breast feed for the first couple of months and we assumed that she couldn't produce enough milk. We went to this consultant and all she did was to change the feeding position by a small degree. After that our daughter fed happily. The problem was not with production but with the latching technique and I wouldn't be surprised if this is the case with many women. I do have a bias against bottle feeding because of our personal experience stated above.

EliRivers 12y ago

According to her, all women who give birth can and will produce enough breast milk and she had the evidence to prove that. Bullshit (not you; her). The only way to prove that, given that humans are messy biologicals and not a mathematical equation, is to line up every woman who ever gave birth and demonstrate that each of them produces enough milk to feed said child. A single counter-example (of which there are many) demonstrates that she's talking rot.

dagw 12y ago

I would love to see that evidence, since I have plenty of anecdotal evidence that it is bullshit. And what's even worse, all the people pushing this nonsense do a lot of damage to all the women who cannot produce enough milk, since all it does is make them feel like failures as mothers. Which is not a good state of mind to be in when someone just dumped a new born baby in your lap and basically says "here you go, this human being lives or dies based solely on your actions".

DanBC 12y ago

I wonder what she says to women who've had mastectomies?

UnoriginalGuy 12y ago

She sounds like a real peach. Honestly that opinion seems more colored by her political views (i.e. breast feeding good, formula evil) than any scientific or medical evidence. I've met lactation consultants just like that, and they often go into diatribes about how hospitals/doctors are evil and push formula on new mothers (which wasn't true at all, in fact the hospital we used had a nurse specifically to help mothers breastfeed and offered heavily subsidised classes). While getting started with breastfeeding is hard and mothers should be encouraged to keep at it. Some mothers simply never produce, even after trying that hard, or that long. At a point you're putting your child's life in danger if you keep trying without results (and, no, I do not mean after just a few hours -- that's normal, I mean days). Honestly I'm pro breastfeeding but I find a lot of other pro breastfeeding people insufferable. No, sorry, but people are in fact good mothers or fathers if they use formula. No, sorry, they aren't automatically ignorant if they use formula. No, sorry, you or your child aren't superior because you breastfeed. No, sorry, it really isn't appropriate to approach random people in the street and lecture them on why they're raising their child wrong.

patja 12y ago
Is "breastfeeding good, formula evil" really a political view? It is not hard to find cases of formula being promoted over breastfeeding to the detriment of infant health and development. Case in point: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nestl%C3%A9_boycott http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nestl%C3%A9_boycott

deleted 12y ago

[deleted]

patja 12y ago

Surely some mothers cannot produce enough milk, but this is the rallying cry justifying reverting to formula, much as "the baby was too big" is the rationalization for cesarean delivery. Surely it is true in some very small percentage of cases, but it cannot explain away the measured variations and choosing the sub-optimal path. Everyone has their own anecdote, but they can't all be biologically incapable of breastfeeding. Take the CDC's data for example: http://www.cdc.gov/breastfeeding/pdf/2014breastfeedingreportcard.pdf http://www.cdc.gov/breastfeeding/pdf/2014breastfeedingreport... When you see breastfeeding at 6 months rates by state that vary from lows in the 30's to highs in the 60's, biology can't explain it away. And from the Surgeon General's report on Barriers to Breastfeeding ( http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK52688/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK52688/ ): "Concern about insufficient milk supply is another frequently cited reason for early weaning of the infant.90,113–116 One national study on feeding practices found that about 50 percent of mothers cited insufficient milk supply as their reason for stopping breastfeeding.112 Having a poor milk supply can result from infrequent feeding or poor breastfeeding techniques,115,117–119 but lack of confidence in breastfeeding or not understanding the normal physiology of lactation can lead to the perception of an insufficient milk supply when in fact the quantity is enough to nurture the baby.120,121"