Self-Care While Breastfeeding
In the first days after your baby’s birth, so much of the discussion around breastfeeding is related to the baby. How is their latch? Are they getting enough milk? Is the baby gaining weight? These are important questions, as breast milk is the best first food a baby can get!
Celebrating National Breastfeeding Month
However, as a breastfeeding (or chestfeeding) parent, it’s also important to think of yourself. Taking care of your own health and your own body’s needs is the foundation for maintaining a good milk supply for your baby. Especially in the first few “survival mode” days following delivery, I found it easy to focus my efforts on my own newborn, while setting aside cares about my own recovery and health.
How do I take care of myself while breastfeeding my baby?
These are some key self-care while breastfeeding measures:
- Hydrate: If you’re dehydrated, you’ll make less milk. Drinking to thirst is a good rule of thumb (and you may be notably thirstier during this time.) Keep a water bottle easily accessible by your typical feeding/pumping location in the home as a reminder to hydrate yourself when hydrating your baby.
- Eat balanced meals with a variety of fresh fruits, veggies and whole grains. This helps your body get enough vitamins and minerals. Your milk contains balance of carbohydrates, proteins and healthy fats for infant nutrition, so your body needs regular nutritious meals with all three of these to make liquid meals for the baby.
- Don’t cut calories. While you may want to lose the “baby weight” as quickly as possible, excessive exercise or calorie restriction will affect milk supply.
How can I keep up my breast milk supply?
Despite following the nutritional rules above, I did find times in my breastfeeding journeys where my supply fluctuated. For example, the nights I spent on call for work, getting even less sleep than usual with my infant, led to lower milk volumes the next day. There are many things that can happen to your body that can affect breast milk supply, including the following:
- Illnesses causing fever, mastitis, or gastrointestinal symptoms can lead to dehydration.
- Stress can affect the ability to let down milk when feeding or pumping, leading to decreased milk volumes for baby.
- Hormonal birth control, especially with estrogen, can decrease milk supply; talk with your clinician about options if you’re concerned that this may be affecting you.
- Return of menstrual cycle: even while breastfeeding, menses often will return, and you may notice that your supply drops when the menstrual cycle is occurring.
- Pregnancy: if you become pregnant you may note a decrease in supply (yes, it’s possible to become pregnant again while breastfeeding/chestfeeding!)
- Medications: Talk with your doctor or lactation consultant about which medications are safe while lactating and if they could affect milk supply.
Tips to increase your milk supply
Many parents will ask me, “What can I do to increase my milk supply?” My first answer is to explain that frequent milk removal is the key. Each time milk is removed from the breast/chest—whether by the baby directly or pump/hand expression—creates hormone signaling to make more milk. Human milk is produced in a supply-demand cycle: when more milk is taken out, more will be made!
There are also some supplements that can help. Galactagogues are types of medications that are thought to increase milk supply. There are no prescription galactagogues available in the United States. Herbal supplements such as fenugreek, moringa, and blessed thistle are commonly considered to help boost milk supply. However, they haven’t been thoroughly studied, so it’s important to talk to your clinician or lactation consultant about their safety and efficacy before using them.
For any concerns about feeding your baby, please reach out to your child’s pediatrician or lactation consultant. And don’t forget the importance of self-care in caring for your baby!
Resources for Parents
Kaiser Permanente
Breastfeeding: Tobacco, Alcohol, and Drugs
American Academy of Pediatrics
Featured Author
I joined the pediatrics team at Kaiser Permanente South Sacramento to help kids thrive. A professional interest of mine is to support breastfeeding families as an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant (IBCLC). During my medical training, I also pursued a degree in public health/health promotion - a field which applies to every patient visit in pediatrics. Yet, some of my most relevant experiences as a pediatrician has come from my two children, who have “trained” me first-hand on the challenges of parenthood and in finding the balance between evidence-based recommendations and reality to achieve optimal childhood growth and development. Dr. Frost's full biography can be found on My Doctor Online. Disclaimer: If you have an emergency medical condition, call 911 or go to the nearest hospital. An emergency medical condition is any of the following: (1) a medical condition that manifests itself by acute symptoms of sufficient severity (including severe pain) such that you could reasonably expect the absence of immediate medical attention to result in serious jeopardy to your health or body functions or organs; (2) active labor when there isn't enough time for safe transfer to a Plan hospital (or designated hospital) before delivery, or if transfer poses a threat to your (or your unborn child's) health and safety, or (3) a mental disorder that manifests itself by acute symptoms of sufficient severity such that either you are an immediate danger to yourself or others, or you are not immediately able to provide for, or use, food, shelter, or clothing, due to the mental disorder. This information is not intended to diagnose health problems or to take the place of specific medical advice or care you receive from your physician or other health care professional. If you have persistent health problems, or if you have additional questions, please consult with your doctor. If you have questions or need more information about your medication, please speak to your pharmacist. Kaiser Permanente does not endorse the medications or products mentioned. Any trade names listed are for easy identification only.