Breastfeeding is the best nutritional option for a baby. Organisms of both mothers and babies seem to tune in to each other, allowing a nursing woman to produce a sufficient amount of milk, and the baby to receive all the most necessary and useful from such food. However, breast milk tends to decrease sharply, as well as increase. Several factors may be responsible for this.
There is a myth that every second woman is not capable of breastfeeding. However, doctors are sure: there are no "non-dairy" mothers, because in a woman, nature has laid down feeding a baby from the first days of his life.
Lactation is an incredibly complex process involving many systems in the body. For example, the higher nervous activity of a person is directly responsible for the formation of the maternal instinct in a woman. Signals from nerve fibers go to the brain, namely the pituitary gland, which is responsible for the production of hormones. The main hormone is prolactin, it is thanks to him that the breast acquires the ability to quickly fill with milk. But if a failure occurs at any of the stages, then the entire lactation process may be disrupted both upward and downward.
Enemies of "milk rivers" are fatigue, depression, nervous breakdowns, stress. Think only about yourself and your child, become selfish at least for a while. There are no such worries and problems that cannot be pushed aside or shifted onto the shoulders of loved ones. Stress and the hormone responsible for human milk (prolactin) are not related in any way, but nervous tension can significantly affect another hormone, oxytocin, which causes milk to flow from the breast. This biological mechanism (the so-called "oxytocin reflex") prevents milk from flowing out in tense and difficult times. In a primitive mother, with a child in her arms fleeing from danger, the flow of milk stopped abruptly. In a calm state, the flow of milk resumed. And in modern women, with fear, tension, excitement and pain, milk is blocked and does not flow out. If the nursing mother does not calm down for a long time, stagnation occurs, the milk burns out, lactation fades away.
One of the reasons for a lack of milk can be a cesarean section, the use of pain relievers during childbirth and drugs to contract the uterus after childbirth. But this is not a reason not to put the baby to the breast. Sucking directly stimulates the nerve endings of the skin on the nipple, it is they who send signals to the pituitary gland, which will gradually respond with the production of hormones, and milk will still begin to arrive.
Improper breastfeeding technique can also reduce milk supply. Make sure that the baby captures the entire nipple halo, so that the breast does not pinch his nose, so that he sucks with his lips tightly around. In the first month, try to feed the baby as often as possible, and if he falls asleep at the breast, touch the cheek and wake him up. Then the child will be full, and milk will begin to be produced in sufficient quantities. If a woman experiences pain from chafing and cracked nipples, this is not a reason to stop feeding or reduce the number of applications. The situation can be saved by healing creams and special silicone breast attachments.
Milk can disappear after a long break in feeding, a serious illness in a woman, as well as undergoing breast surgery (before or after the birth of a child). Taking oral contraceptives sometimes also provokes a decrease in lactation. During the feeding period, you should refrain from pills containing estrogenic (male sex) hormones, and use contraceptives that include a minimum amount of only one female hormone - progestogen. Or temporarily switch to a barrier method of contraception.
And, of course, a nursing mother, like her baby, needs good rest, regular walks in the air, a healthy diet, and sleep. And then everything will be all right with lactation.
