Some days I just want to scream…..

 I am in a lot of facebook groups, and so many times I see people saying they couldn’t breastfeed because they didn’t make enough milk……this is very prevalent in the PKU groups I am in.  Sadly the reality is that most people can breastfeed if they know how, and have the education to know what things will and will not destroy or inhibit their supply.  

For example, it is essential in the first days and weeks of life that a mom breastfeed as much as possible to set up a solid foundation or making milk.  When someone gives a supplement of formula (whether that is regular formula or metabolic formula for those living with PKU) they MUST pump.  If they do not pump the body doesn’t think it needs to that milk and that starts the process of the body making less milk.  Milk is only produced when milk is removed.  If you do not remove the milk then the body thinks it is not needed and doesn’t make more.  

One of the biggest problems I think we have in this country is that there is not enough education surrounding breastfeeding.  So, when a woman starts to struggle or have problems they immediately go to formula when in fact the problem could probably be easily remedied if they knew what they needed to do.  That is one of the biggest reasons why I teach how to handle problems when they arise in my breastfeeding classes.  If someone knows what problems to look for, and how they can handle that issue if it arises then they are more prepared.  Most of the time classes just teach them how to breastfeed, but not how to handle problems.  

Honestly I feel like breastfeeding education should be a part of education all women get when they become pregnant (of course, I feel the same way about childbirth education…..everyone should have it).  If everyone had an education and breastfeeding became second nature in our society we would see more success.  To me this is so important…..especially right now with the formula shortages and people struggling to find formula.  

Anyone who is pregnant right now really needs to set their mind to breastfeeding no matter what because you never know if you will have access to formula to feed your baby.  Imagine, having a baby and not being able to feed that baby and then needing to come up with some sort of made up concoction that might not be nutritionally sound.  How scary is that?!

Along with that women who “couldn’t” breastfeed need to understand what they might have done to impact why they couldn’t. I am not trying to place blame or guilt on anyone, but I have seen first hand people saying “I couldn’t breastfeed because I didn’t have a supply” and then going on to complain about how badly they wanted to breastfeed when in reality they started to give supplemental bottles and didn’t pump.  Heck, I am guilty of the very same thing.  When I had my first child I didn’t know anything about breastfeeding and no one in my life ever breastfed.  My mother didn’t, my grandmother didn’t, so I had no one to learn from.  I can remember being tired and/or people offering to feed the baby and I let them.  Before I knew it I wasn’t making milk and was so upset that I “couldn’t” breastfeed when the reality was it was self induced.  

Then when I had my second child again I started giving him formula because he was a “big” baby and I was afraid I didn’t make enough. I started to “top him off” with formula after he breastfed.  By topping him off my body didn’t recognize that it needed to make more milk instead of less and then I wasn’t producing enough.  I had no clue how to go from not making enough to making enough to stop the top off.  

It wasn’t until I educated myself that I realized in both cases it was me who doomed myself and my breastfeeding relationship. It wasn’t that I couldn’t breastfeed and couldn’t make enough money it was I didn’t because of the things I did.  Again, I am not trying to place blame or make people feel bad, but if you say you couldn’t breastfeed you need to recognize that it was the circumstances that caused you to not be able to breastfeed and not that you truly couldn’t.  There is a big difference between someone who legitimately doesn’t make enough milk and someone who created that situation due to their actions.  

As I said, I was in that same situation years ago, and had I not educated myself I wouldn’t have known and couldn’t have fixed it.  When I learned what I was doing wrong and learned how my actions impacted that relationship I was able to then go on and feed my babies fully at the breast, and that is why I believe if there was more education surrounding breastfeeding we would see more success and less struggles.