15/01/2025
Calling All 6-8 Week PP mamas ๐ฃ
Around 6-8 weeks your body has *hopefully* gotten an important message about how much milk your baby needs. Itโs essentially the foundation for your breastfeeding relationship. This is why I strongly suggest monitoring your breastfeeding success in those first few weeks + why reaching out to an LC is so important if youโre struggling.
Because of alllll of this, you may experience less breast fullness, less engorgement, and less leaking overall. Babyโs also go through a growth spurt conveniently around the same time and all of this combined makes some of us think our milk supply has dropped off the face of the earth. For most, it hasnโt - itโs just regulated to what your baby ACTUALLY needs instead of all the extra.
Here are two of the major things going on:
โจ ๐ฒ๐จ๐ฎ๐ซ ๐๐จ๐๐ฒ ๐๐๐๐ฉ๐ญ๐ฌ ๐ญ๐จ ๐๐๐๐ฒโ๐ฌ ๐ง๐๐๐๐ฌ: your milk supply is now finely tuned to your babyโs actual intake, reducing overproduction
โจ ๐ฒ๐จ๐ฎ๐ซ ๐ก๐จ๐ซ๐ฆ๐จ๐ง๐๐ฌ ๐ฌ๐ญ๐๐๐ข๐ฅ๐ข๐ณ๐: in the early days, hormones like prolactin drive milk production. By now, supply is more dependent on demand, responding to how often and how well your baby nurses
Ready for the most important part of this post?? Hereโs how to determine if what your experiencing is normal or not โฌ๏ธ
If you are making what your baby needs *and* your baby is hitting their weight + growth milestones at this time then you can consider these changes normal. If you arenโt making enough *or* your baby is struggling to grow the 6-8 week mark is actually often a telltale time that breastfeeding isnโt going as well as itโs looking and itโs possible your supply is really, truly low.
Always here if you need to chat or book an appointment for breastfeeding support ๐คฑ๐ฝ I offer virtual appointments worldwide + in home appointments in Waterloo region.
Samantha (RN, IBCLC)
Thank you so much for this information! - ๐
