My Struggle with Low Milk Supply **Extremely Personal**

How much milk I thought I'd produce!

First, this is going to be an EXTREMELY personal post...and I am writing this while currently attached to a pump (I practically live my whole life attached to this machine.)...

Breastfeeding did not go as planned...like almost everything else in my journey to becoming a mom, and life in general. I knew breastmilk is what is best for baby. Women have been breastfeeding since the beginning of time. It's completely natural. So, it should kind of just "happen" right? Wrong.

I believe there are two main reasons for my low supply:

1. Supplementing with formula.

2. Breast surgery.

Sometime in my second trimester, I decided that I wanted to exclusively breastfeed my daughter. In preparation took the class offered by my hospital. I thought I knew all that I needed to know. Fast forward to her birth...baby latched perfectly and was transferring colostrum! Great! Then comes the two-day check-up. Our pediatrician looks at me and says "Uhmmm...baby has lost 11% of her birth weight and has heightened bili levels. You should supplement with formula." I was devastated. This was not what I wanted for her.

Little did I know that starting the cycle of supplementing with formula (especially without pumping each time she fed off the bottle) would be detrimental to my milk supply. After speaking with a lactation consultant at around 6 weeks, I realized that baby would have been just fine and we could have continued feeding at the breast for the next few days until my milk came in. At worst, she would have needed a session under the bili blanket. Unfortunately, I did not have this information and took the Pedi's word as law.

My milk came in shortly thereafter. I am still struggling with low milk supply to this day. Supplementing became a vicious cycle for me and my family. Things are getting better, but it is a slow and tiring journey.

Now, for the personal part. A year and a half before I delivered my daughter, I made the very self-centered decision to undergo a breast augmentation. I do not shame women who want to alter their bodies in this way. HOWEVER, I do want women who have yet to have children to be informed of the possible consequences.

I think that this may be one of the reasons for my struggling milk supply. I have one breast that over-produces and one that has just given up (HA!). I always assumed that I would have trouble feeding with the left breast due to my augmentation. It may have simply been a self-fulfilling prophecy. I thought I couldn't feed from the left, so I always put baby on the right. Milk production is supply and demand, therefore the left began to produce less and the right began to produce more. OR I could have damaged milk ducts from the procedure. Who knows? But I do want to let other women know that it is not worth the risk! I will never know if my selfish decision to have cosmetic surgery at a young age affected my ability to give my baby the precious gift of breast milk. Looking back, I wish more than anything that I would have waited...but that's what life is about right? Living and learning.

As of now, I am still living attached to my pump, taking insane amounts of herbal supplements and thankfully baby still prefers breast to bottle. Although she is now already 10 weeks, I am hoping that these efforts will result in my supply increasing enough to be able to have her feeding with only breast milk and solids by 6 months, as I plan to breastfeed for a year, if not more!

I plan on writing a follow up post about what has helped me increase my milk supply thus far! Be on the look out!