The missus has taken the classes, read the literature, and it all claims that women only store about 15 minutes worth of milk in the breasts when lactating.
In her case, this is not true. Last night, the pump ran for damn near an hour, with her putting out over 2 cups of milk. Supposedly, her milk has not even completely let down yet.
What’s the deal? Is 15 minutes an arbitrary figure based upon “average” breast size? After delivering our son, she swelled up to about a 40E. I’m thinking that if there’s more breast, there’s more milk, but i can’t find any cites to that end.
Breast tissue is mostly fat, IIRC. Everything I’ve read indicates that there is no relationship between breast size and milk production. Also there seem to be individual differences in women’s ability to pump milk. I’ve heard a lot of women say that they can nurse just fine, but never get more than an ounce or two when they try to pump.
Another thing. The literature I’ve read says that milk production is a supply and demand thing. If your wife is routinely running the pump for an hour, her body is probably getting the idea that she has one helluva hungry baby there.
Yes, it is a supply and demand thing. After pumping that much milk, her body has gotten the signal to produce even more. she’s likely to be one very uncomfortable woman.
Non-lactating breast size has no bearing on what milk production will be. Some women never experience much breast enlargement during pregnancy. This is not an omen of how successfull she will be at nursing a hungry newborn.
What I know about breasting feeding is not a lot but this interesting ‘tit bit’ came my way the other day.
Don’t know if the phrase ‘wet nursing’ is part of the American vocabulary – it is here – and lordy, lordy, I had no idea of it’s origins. For those equally as challenged on matters mammorial, it seems that in bygone days of yore if a mother ran dry of milk she’d call in a wet nurse – a local woman with surplus supplies – so the baby was always fed…
Did the rest of the world already know this ?
congratulations, MC. Looking forward to some seriously offbeat posts from you when the sleep deprivation kicks in
Yeah, an hour on the pump would be a real bummer. I think what most women do is nurse the baby and then pump for a little while longer to start storing up supplies in the freezer. A newborn doesn’t take more than about 2-4 ounces at a time, so there is plenty to go around without pumping for an hour. Her supply will grow naturally with the baby’s demands.
Plus, there’s a difference between STORAGE and PRODUCTION. You can only STORE so much milk in your breasts before it starts to either leak out or hurt like HELL. Production goes on hold until the storage chambers are empty. However, once that pressure is off, production can be CONTINUOUS. SO she could stay on the pump 24/7 and still get a little, endlessly - just not as big a gush as when you first start up. They never REALLY empty, though at times nothing will come out for a few minutes.
I pumped a lot - 8 months of pumping at work. I also got a TON - usually at LEAST a cup per session, and I was only pumping about 8-10 minutes (once I got the hang of it). I often ended up throwing out some each week - once the freezer filled up.
Your wife is not strange - she’s lucky she can produce as well as she demands, especially with a pump. However, if she triggers an overproduction by pumping too much, she can cause problems for herself and baby. If she makes too much milk, baby will fill up on the thinner foremilk and never get to the fat-rich hind milk. Baby will then get hungry faster, and will never seem satisfied. Baby will also be prone to tummy upset, since the high-fat hind milk helps protect the lining of the intestines. You can tell if there is an oversupply because baby poop turns green when it happens (and doesn’t have the whole ‘seed-like’ texture, and may have mucous if the intestines are already inflamed). This happens off and on as supply changes to meet baby’s needs, so an occasional bout of it is no biggie. But if it is often, it might be worth the misery of NOT pumping or letting out any extra milk until the supply drops to meet baby’s actual demand level. (Engorgement will signal reduced production - likewise, if she’s pumping that much, for that long, chances are her production will go UP, and as already noted, she’ll have a bit of an owie engorgement situation soon…)
Congratulations! What an adventure you two are embarking on!
Pre-birth boob size is NO indicator, I know. I grew a little while pregnant, maybe a couple of inches and a cup letter. But good lord, after the baby was born- hooters! Pretty cool for a petite chick!
I never pumped, because it didn’t work very well (not that I gave it much of a chance), and I didn’t have to leave the baby & work. The more the baby eats, the more milk will be produced. The baby may go through finicky stages, so watch that she doesn’t become engorged. It hurts like hell, and you will only leak when you are out in public & totally unprepared for it.
Breastfeeding is more fun than bottle feeding breastmilk, IMHO, because it’s a cool cuddle time too. My son just decided to stop nursing the other day, literally. One day he was nursing, the next he refused! He now only nurses once in the middle of the night. Interesting note- that same day he stopped waking up every 2-3 hours and sleeps through except for one wake-up. Go figure.
This was a common practice. I believe that some women belonging to the higher social classes would, even they didn’t run dry first, hire a wet nurse for their babies. I think breastfeeding was seen by some of the hoity-toity as a manual labor that was beneath their delicate sensibilities.
I’ve read your writings to the missus, and she thanks you as well. She asked me to clarify a couple points, since I am an ignorant male.
Apparently, she was already engorged in one breast, hence the hour on the pump session. What’s a good way to alleviate the pain? She thought that pumping that sucker dry would do the trick
I’m a volunteer breastfeeding counselor, (and have nursed 2 of my own) so if your wife needs more detailed help, my addy’s in my profile.
Engorgement tips - hot compresses often help. Tylenol is ok while nursing too, and helps with the afterpains she may be having as her uterus contracts after giving birth. Fun, huh?
I wouldn’t spend an hour on the pump. Just express enough so she feels comfortable again. Breasts never really run dry - it’s a supply and demand relationship - the more stimulation = more milk. The milk will just flow more slowly after the initial amount “stored” has been expressed.
You’ve alrady gotten great advice from everybody else here.That is so sweet of Tygre to offer to help - we didn’t have any volunteer counselors here when I was nursing.
I just wanted to add my two bits on pain.When I was nursing and had some soreness or pain I found that a comfortably hot shower really helped, too.Sometimes a shower would sort of trigger a letdown and some of the surplus would be emptied out.Never very much, but enough that I felt better.
Right after birth my boobs always got rock hard and felt stiff.The heat seemed to soften them and make them less tender.
I believe in some areas you can donate extra breast milk, so if you find your freezer overflowing (as I did when my wife had too much milk), you can put it to good use.
I always told my wife that the best use for the extra milk was to drink it, so she’d get back those calories and nutrients she lost, but she didn’t seem to go for it
Didn’t the late magnate John D. Rockefeller have women produce milk for him to drink as a “tonic” in his elder years.
What does human female breast milk taste like relative to cows milk? Sweeter - less sweet - thicker thinner? Can you use it in coffee? Can you make butter with it? Would the hormones and antigens in it that are necessary for a healthy baby be bad for full grown adult?
What does human female breast milk taste like relative to cows milk? Sweeter - less sweet - thicker thinner? Can you use it in coffee? Can you make butter with it?
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Hey, I’ll tell you what! I have NO desire to taste it at all! I don’t know why, cause I’ve always loved my wife’s breasts. They’re perfect as you can see in this link
Anyway, I just can’t bring myself to do it. I’m as curious as the next guy, but whoa. I just won’t go there. I feel bad getting it on my wrist when checking a bottle’s temperature.
It tastes like 2% milk when the Cheerios are all gone.
I’m dead serious. Smell, flavor, consistency…leftover 2% from a bowl of Cheerios.
I was engorged after each child…went up to 38-G (which I figured stood for either “gargantuan” or “good god!”). They were HARD, they HURT, it SUCKED. Gently massaging with a warm, damp washcloth helped. from my experience, expressing for about 10 minutes was enough to take off enough pressure for it to at least be bearable. I definitely don’t recommend expressing for an entire hour.
About 10 years ago I remember hearing of a company that had cheese made from human milk for sale. It was expensive, it cost about its weight in gold, if I’m not mistaken. No, I never tried any.
