What to Eat for Breastfeeding Success
One of the most common questions pregnant and new mums ask me is what to eat to boost breastmilk supply. Although a seemingly innocuous question, what underlies it is doubt in their body’s ability to know how and how much milk to produce. I find this sad because it hints at the lack of confidence women have in themselves and lack of wisdom that should have been passed down from past generations of mothers and grandmothers about breastfeeding.
It’s perhaps not surprising that many women worry about supply. Stories abound about breastfeeding being hard and we often know of women who stopped breastfeeding early due to difficulties. But breastmilk supply often has very little to do with what you’re eating. Women who give birth in poverty, in war and in hunger are usually still able to feed their babies effectively, albeit at the expense of their own depleted nutrient stores. Our bodies are designed to ensure that we survive to another generation, and so baby should always be able to be nursed naturally.
Does it matter what I eat?
So while it’s likely that any lactation cookie recipes you find online probably has more of a placebo effect than anything else (many women swear they help boost supply so don’t discount it necessarily!), does food play a part at all in the breastfeeding process? In actual fact, it does. Because just like pregnancy and childbirth, breastfeeding is an energy- and nutrient-hungry process. When breastfeeding, our bodies ensure baby gets absolutely everything he needs from us - all the nutrients that help him grow and mature in exactly the way he needs. And if we don’t have enough of them to hand? They come from our stores - fat from our brain, calcium from our bones, for example. Our bodies are clever - it knows how to ensure baby survives through famine because it has stored nutrients away in various parts of our bodies.
“Over time, if mum’s diet is unable to keep up with the demands of breastfeeding, she will slowly become depleted in key nutrient stores.”
But in the modern, developed world, true famine - an absolute lack of food - is fairly unlikely. However, what is common is low levels of vital nutrients due to diets focused on refined carbohydrates rather than an abundance of colourful vegetables and a variety of meat and fish. This creates a famine of sorts as far as the body is concerned. Just as in true famine, the body starts taking nutrients from stores around the body. And this can have a detrimental effect on maternal health and wellbeing.
So what?
Over time, if mum’s diet is unable to keep up with the demands of breastfeeding, she will slowly become depleted in key nutrient stores. She feels tired, lethargic, low energy and irritable. She may find her hormones are more chaotic than they were before conceiving, she may lose interest in activities that she previously enjoyed, her sex life and relationships suffer. In short, she becomes someone she no longer recognises. In the long term, if her diet and lifestyle remains less than ideal, she may be more susceptible to serious diseases such as osteoporosis, dementia, cancer, heart disease, to name a few.
This sounds serious, and it is. Diet and lifestyle have a huge bearing on future wellness, and often the slow downwards spiral mums experience from pregnancy onwards is a starting point for many women to feel those effects…although often it’s all too easy to ignore.
Next week I’m going to tell you my top 5 foods to eat while breastfeeding to keep your nutrient stores topped up - keep your eyes peeled!