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Tips To Increase Milk Supply During Breastfeeding | Hea Boosters

Breastfeeding is one of the most beautiful phases of motherhood. After initial hiccups, you and your baby must have become accustomed to the feeding routine. By the time your baby is 15 days old you slowly understand their cues like when they are hungry and what they need. This happens very rarely but sometimes chances are that you may be producing less milk than what your baby needs. So, what should you do in that situation?

You may have many doubts regarding breastfeeding and as soon as you start breastfeeding you may wonder whether “my child is getting enough milk?”, “I hope I have enough milk to feed my baby whenever he/she is hungry?” and the biggest of them all is “If I am producing less milk, what can I do to increase my milk production?"
a mom breastfeeding her baby - hea boosters
If your little one is putting on a healthy weight, then you shouldn't fuss over less milk production.

However, if this is something that worries you and you believe that you do have a low production of breast milk, then there are different approaches to address these issues.

Tips to increase breastmilk supply:

1. Pump your milk regularly:

Your body produces breastmilk as much as your child needs it. If you are feeding your baby a limited number of times a day chances are you may suffer from a decrease in breastmilk as soon as your baby starts using formula milk. How frequently and how much milk is taken out from the breast are the principal factors that decide how much milk will be made. All in all, the more frequently you pump the milk either your child has increased their feeding requirements or you are using a breast pump, you’ll have more milk to feed your baby for a long time.

2. Increasing your feeding or pumping frequency:

Another simple way of increasing your breast milk supply is either increasing your feeding frequency or alternating between feeding and pumping. Try to express milk at least 8 times in the day either by feeding the baby or pumping the milk and storing it.

3. Pump and nurse:

Another approach to increase breast milk production is to feed your baby and afterward pump and store the milk. Your breast milk can be refrigerated or frozen for up to eight hours, so you don’t have to worry about this golden liquid going to waste.
mom holding her baby

4. Self-care:

The first step in caring for yourself. When you care for yourself, you can see its effect on the supply of breast milk, and this could help in increasing breast milk supply. Eating healthy food and including natural herbs like Shatavari, fennel, and fenugreek seeds, among others, can help in increasing breast milk production.

5. Lactation supplements:

A few mothers can swear by the benefits they have reaped from galactagogues or lactation supplements that help in increasing breast milk. Several studies have shown mixed results regarding the benefits new moms can reap from lactation supplements, however, every mother should learn as much as possible about these supplements and how they can be useful to them in case they wish to increase the breast milk supply.

Cookies, teas, and smoothies made from spices like alfalfa, fenugreek, or fennel seeds, or adding a normal amount of flaxseed in supper, oats, and brewer's yeast, can be used as herbal lactation supplements and if these supplements are not working for you, then you can always opt for premade lactation supplements that are available in the market.

Conclusion:

As long as your child is happy, healthy, and developing in the way they should, you shouldn't be stressed over your breast milk supply. You can choose to talk with your child's physician (and yours!) or a lactation expert or an elder in your family in case you're concerned about the breast milk supply. In any case, it's okay, if you need help or you simply need someone to talk about all this there is no shame in asking for help when you don’t understand something.

Source:

A Review of Herbal and Pharmaceutical Galactagogues for Breastfeeding
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5158159/

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