part of it, as well, is that EVERYTHING impacts nursing. One of the biggest culprits in bashing ones' milk supply is stress.
so... we have a generation of women who are convinced that they both have to breastfeed AND return to work (so PUMP, which messes with supply for most people, too)... and keep perfectly clean houses, and run the older kid to a bajillion activities and be a sex kitten.
there's a crapton more expected of us than in generations before.
Women in countries with really really good maternity leave laws... they don't have the lactation problems American women have.
Just sayin'.
(and as much as overweight might be an issue, I'd guess that a bigger part of that issue is that overweight = more likely poor/poorer = more stress of all kinds = breastfeeding problems)
I wonder if you could boil all of this down to just the pump. More pumping = more supply problems because your body just doesn't respond to the pump as well as baby.
asdfjkl I think this article/study suffers by association. It's not it's fault per se, but the place we're at WRT weight and society and moms is just so massively shitty there is no way to put out this information in a way that goes well. That's assuming there isn't a way to go about the whole correlation/causation differently as Kuus suggests, which I wouldn't rule out.
There's something icky I find about the "early intervention/diagnosis" angle here. If only you knew you were a fatty. If only we could help you not be a fatty. Except we have literally zero idea how to do that long-term (or we have a very good idea: there is no way). It's a little like education to prevent unwanted pregnancies. Condescending. I do appreciate the focus on helping pre-diabetic women succeed at BF, rather than helping women not be pre-diabetic, but it sounds like these meds kind of suck.
I wonder about this a lot. Evolutionarily speaking, breastfeeding issues should be rare. Inability to nurse (either mother or child) is pretty devastating on your personal ability to survive. And yet I know from too many years in TN that issues are very common. I would assume that if it were a big problem in the past, we'd know about it, right? We know all about the perils of childbirth before modern medicine, but I don't recall ever hearing that ability to nurse was a significant concern. So what's going on? Is something in our environment or lifestyle that's causing it?
Well, people lived in large familial groups. I'm sure sisters, cousins, etc... Could nurse a baby if someone couldn't. Or, the woman's children all died and those genes weren't passed on.
Also, I think bf'ing and ability to conceive are probably linked. 100 years ago someone like me just couldn't have babies bc there weren't hormone treatments to help, genes weren't passed on. Only the strong survive. Darwin!
Yep. In the past you let your baby nurse with someone that had enough milk or your baby died. That's why we don't hear about it.
Anecdote: Overweight, 29 week and 32 week preemies, oversupply.
While I was in the NICU all the time I talked to the nurses there about why some people have no trouble nursing and some people do. One of them said that they read a study that suggested it might have to do with the amount of serotonin in your brain. (More=better) I want to find that research.
While I was in the NICU all the time I talked to the nurses there about why some people have no trouble nursing and some people do. One of them said that they read a study that suggested it might have to do with the amount of serotonin in your brain. (More=better) I want to find that research.
I honestly haven't looked in to much research about this. However, don't obese women produce more estrogen (due to increased fat) and estrogen inhibits milk production, right?
So if this new research is correct then it totally makes sense from a scientific standpoint. I also hope that women don't take offense to the research and it could help women in the future.
PCOS is also linked to over-supply. IMO it's honestly a crapshoot when trying to figure it out. With one exception, everyone I know of that has PCOS is not overweight but if they did BF, they had a severe oversupply. Apparently my friends like to attempt to disprove stuff.
I had mastitis twice in the first month I went back to work because of my damn oversupply. For several months when I was EPing I was producing 120 oz a day. That was with me pumping every 5 hours.
Wow. 120 oz a DAY?!! I am lusting after your milk supply
I had mastitis twice in the first month I went back to work because of my damn oversupply. For several months when I was EPing I was producing 120 oz a day. That was with me pumping every 5 hours.
Wow. 120 oz a DAY?!! I am lusting after your milk supply
Don't be. Every time I tried to wean down I got mastitis. I hated, hated that damn pump. I don't miss EPing at all.
Wow. 120 oz a DAY?!! I am lusting after your milk supply
Don't be. Every time I tried to wean down I got mastitis. I hated, hated that damn pump. I don't miss EPing at all.
Ugh mastitis sucks. I guess we all have some issue whether it's too much milk or relying on the pump to (me) trying to squeeze every last drop out my boobs to make enough bottles for the next day