National Breast Feeding Week Special: Troubleshooting the Boobs

Preface: Every woman’s body is different, and your breastfeeding journey may be different from or similar to mine. This doesn’t mean that you are doing something wrong or right, you’re simply just doing. Especially so if you are a first time mom.

I brought my son home on a Tuesday afternoon, after giving birth to him on a Sunday night, in the August summer heat of 2023. I vividly remember waking up the Thursday morning to two beautiful, but painfully engorged, and heavy breasts. My milk had finally come in, and I was so elated, tired but elated because I wanted to breastfeed, it was a my heart’s desire. Then, 3 days into me breastfeeding, I woke up one morning and my breasts were… for lack of a better word, “dry” and flat. I squeezed, nothing, I tried pumping and roughly 1 teaspoon of milk successfully came. I almost cried, but then I remembered I had friends who have been down this road of breastfeeding that I could call on.

So, I grabbed my phone, opened the WhatsApp app, found my girlfriend Melonie and texted:

Me: “My milk isn’t coming down, woke up and my breasts are dry.”

Melonie: “Have you eaten more in the past days you started eating?”

Me: “Naah, I have been eating the same. I don’t want to over eat.”

Melonie: “What about hydration?”

Me: “I mean, I am thirsty, but not excessively.”

Melonie: “Well, I think you should start eating more, pack on more food, drink a lot more and PUMP! Pump for a while so that the milk comes back down then you can decide if you want to keep pumping or not.”

In that moment, receiving this advice and directive, I realized that what I thought and was indirectly taught (culturally in Jamaica), in this new age, about breastfeeding, was wrong. The body requires more calories, than previous, to produce milk, and this is a fact. No, you aren’t greedy for having heightened hunger cues, this is simply biology at work. To nourish, and keep the tiny human alive, your body, for the better part of 3 years, isn’t just yours. That’s the first sacrificial act of the mom, in my opinion.

When I started to eat more, making space for an additional 500 calories to my diet (ugh, I was always hungry, and the breastfeeding thirst!), increasing my water and beverage intake, and pumping, in between my son feeding directly from my breasts, my milk flowed with ease. I ended up being an over producer. I stopped pumping at 4 months postpartum because it was very tiring, and caused me to lose more weight than I liked. Now, this is strictly anecdotal and in no way is evidence for you to take home. All bodies are different. If you’re a new mom, whose desire is to exclusively breastfeed or combination feed, but you are finding it challenging, speak up, ask a trusted friend whom you know has breastfed her child(ren), speak with your pediatrician and try to get connected with a lactation specialist or midwife that specializes in post-partum care for mom and child.

There are many online resources available to breastfeeding mom, a simple google search will produce answers, shortlist what makes sense and is applicable or aligns with your situation, then do follow up.

xx Dacia