Birth Your Way Jax

 

Increasing Your Breastmilk Production

This is a list I've compiled from my own experiences and from email from other breastfeeding moms over the past 2-3 years. If you have other suggestions to offer for increasing milk production and/or pumping yield, please email me. Also, see this comprehensive site dedicated to helping mothers increase their milk supply, owned by Diana West, IBCLC, for more information if you are having trouble with supply.

A very basic concept that must be understood in order to approach a supply problem is this: milk production is a delicate balance of demand and supply. This distinction between supply and demand versus demand and supply is an important one to note. Milk production (supply) is DRIVEN by demand - from the baby or from a pump. If the milk producing glands are not stimulated by breastfeeding and/or pumping often enough throughout the day and night, they do not get the "signal" that milk is being demanded so that milk should be produced accordingly. Please keep that concept in mind as you read the following tips and try to incorporate as many milk gland stimulating activities into your daily life as possible.