Breastfeeding is as old as humans, perhaps that is why we all feel qualified to comment on the subject and take for granted certain statements that over time have become authentic myths.
When you are breastfeeding your baby, there are always people around you willing to give you their opinion or to show that their experiences or past tips from generation to generation they are authentic truths that we must all follow. If you keep reading we will try to dismantle some of those myths.
About chest size
If you have a small breast you will not have milk
Not at all, the part of the breast that makes milk is the glandular zone and what makes the breast larger or smaller size is the amount of fat that surrounds it. The glandular zone does not develop until pregnancy, so having little breast has nothing to do with having or not having milk for our baby.
If your breast does not grow during pregnancy, you will not have milk
In pregnancy the breast undergoes many changes to be able to fulfill its mission and make milk later for our child. There are women who notice great changes from the beginning, but there are many others who hardly notice anything during pregnancy, when the baby is born and begins to suck It is when we will notice important changes in the breasts.
If you have had breast surgery, you will not be able to breastfeed
In most cases You can breastfeed normally. If you have done a breast augmentation with the implant of a prosthesis it is most likely that have no problem breastfeeding your baby, if what you did was a breast reduction It will depend on the type of incision that they made, if the milk ducts were not sectioned that reach the nipple you can breastfeed without problems. In any case, take the intervention report to your obstetrician, so that he can assess the type of intervention and the incision that was made.
About the quality of your milk
The first days you do not have milk and you have to give the baby a bottle
Sure you have milk. Since long before the baby is born you make a type of milk called colostrum, essential for the first days of our baby. Except for the rare occasions when the baby has a problem and the pediatrician considers that he needs some help, colostrum is more than enough.
You can have low quality milk
No mother has low milk, don't let them convince you otherwise, your milk has the right composition at all times For your baby, it will change as the baby gets older and has other needs.
The mother should eat more, especially dairy to make good quality milk
Our feeding must always be healthy and balanced, although it is true that experts recommend that slightly increase the number of calories that the mother takes during breastfeeding, but, yes, at the cost of eating more fruits and vegetables. It is also important to stay well hydrated, to keep our vital functions and our body healthy. But for the composition of the milk to be affected the mother has to have very important nutritional deficiencies or a state of malnutrition.
My milk does not satisfy him and he cries a lot from hunger.
Possibly the problem is, more than in the quality of the milk, in the way of offering you the shots. Put the baby whenever I ask and insist that I empty well, at least, a breast. Be patient and you will see how in a few days everything will normalize.
If you eat foods that produce gases, you will pass them to the baby
In no case will you pass the gases to your baby. The gases are produced during digestion of food in the intestine, by fermenting these. Breast milk passes nutrients to the baby. So whatever you eat It will not be what produces the baby's gas.
Neither mother nor my grandmother had milk, so neither will I
Having or not having milk is not a hereditary issue. There are very few real cases of "Hypogalactia" (low milk production) and are usually caused for medical problems or certain chronic treatments, it is most likely that the low milk production is due to certain customs (rigid schedules, limited drinking time ...) that were previously recommended and that they were not conducive to breastfeeding.
About the schedule of the shots
Babies have to eat every three hours, never before.
A newborn should do between 8 and 12 servings a day. If he asks to eat, you have to give him, especially in the first weeks when the baby's stomach capacity is very small and he needs us to provide small amounts of food many times a day. As time goes by, the baby stops needing to take so many feedings and only ask when hungry, lengthening the times between shots.
You do not have to wake the baby to eat, it feeds more sleep than eating
Babies need to sleep, but lThe calories and necessary nutrients are fed to him. When the baby is older and has a good weight gain, he can space feedings without great problems, but a newborn cannot.
The feedings last 10 minutes from each breast and the baby has to eat from both breasts at each feed.
An error that has been transmitted for a long time and that has caused many abandonments of breastfeeding. The composition of the breast milk changes as feeding goes onAt first, when the child begins to eat, the first thing that comes out of the breast is milk rich in water and as the baby eats begins to have more amount of fat, that's why the ideal is to let the baby empty one breast completely at each feeding, so that it takes both the amount of fat like water what do you need. Each child eat at a pace, so if you only eat 10 minutes you may only eat milk rich in water, with little amount of fat and stay hungry ... Giving him 10 minutes of each breast does not ensure that he eats well, You must empty one breast at each feeding, even if you do not want to eat from the other later.
If you leave it as long as you want on the chest it will make you cracks
The babies newborns take a long time to eat, suction means for them a very intense exercise and they get exhaustedso they need to rest. It is normal for the intake to last about an hour. Do not let him fall asleep to the chest, then he will not eat, but your feeling will be that he is constantly on the chest and that he eats all the time. If he falls asleep, it is normal for him to release the nipple.
The breastfed child will not let you sleep at night.
Babies need to eat often, both with breastfeeding as with a bottle… The hormones that breastfeeding depends on increase with darkness, so that especially at the beginning, they will ask for more at night to stimulate good production, then it will go spacing the night shots. When the baby takes a bottle You will still need to eat day and night just as often.
About how much the baby eats
To know the amount of milk you produce, you must express it with a breast pump and measure the result
Nobody expresses milk better than your baby. With a breast pump you will never properly empty your chestIn addition to the fact that the stimulus produced by the breast pump is not nearly as effective as the baby. So that you will never get with a breast pump to know the exact amount that your baby eats.
To know what the baby eats we must weigh him before and after feeding
Can you imagine weighing yourself before and after eating to know how much stew, salad or stew you have eaten? Well, the same is your baby. The "double heavy" is an outdated practice and totally discouraged by experts.
It is necessary to give the baby other liquids, such as water, infusions or juices during breastfeeding
With mother's milk the baby does not need anything else… If he is thirsty, he will ask you to suckle, but he will not empty the breast, he will only suck the first part of the shot, when the milk is older water amount and then he will go back to taking his normal shots.
About the mother's recovery
When you get pregnant again you have to stop breastfeeding
It is not recommended to stop breastfeeding if there is a new pregnancy.. You will not have any problem maintaining it. Only in cases of threat of very early preterm birth they can advise you to wean the older brother. When the baby is born we will have to give priority in shots. And when you have a lot of engorgement or some area of difficult emptying put the older brother solves the problem for you Immediately.
During breastfeeding you cannot get pregnant
It is true that with exclusive breastfeeding and the first months of postpartum usually there is no ovulation, but this not totally reliable and in many cases, the mother ovulates, so it is not a good contraceptive method.
When the mother is sick or has a fever, she should stop breastfeeding
Nothing is further from reality, Except for very specific diseases, breastfeeding should never be interrupted. In case you need any treatment you can always choose some compatible with breastfeeding.
During the lactation period, sexual relations are not satisfactory or recommended
Postpartum is a tough time, it is difficult to normalize sexual relations, we have discomfort, fear and a lot of fatigue. Lactation hormones can cause some inhibition of sexual desire that, together with the vaginal dryness that follows pregnancy, can make sexual intercourse not entirely satisfactory at first, but it is somewhat transitory, little by little you will go back to normal.
very good information! thanks for the post !!
Thank you!!