Colostrum and Breastfeeding

Hey Mamas!! So I've seen a lot of posts asking about colostrum and mums-to-be worrying that they're not getting any colostrum which may make them worry about breastfeeding. While your baby is growing, your placenta is knocking out loads and loads of hormones. One of which is called Prolactin, which is what causes your breasts to produce colostrum and milk. Your placenta, however, is also pumping out estrogen and progesterone at a higher rate than the prolactin so in most cases, the prolactin is being cancelled out and can't take real effect until 2-3 days after the placenta leaves the body. So by adding some foods to your diet, you can increase the prolactin produced by your body, so you can start harvesting colostrum before you've had your baby. Foods like fresh apricots, dates, sesame seeds, flaxseed, barley, chickpeas, and lentils can increase prolactin levels. These foods are known as galactagogues, or lactogenic foods, and are said to increase milk supply. Hope this helps!! ❤️

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Sorry I’m abit confused! I was told by my midwife and breastfeeding team that colostrum and milk supply aren’t linked - some women get loads of both, some get more of one than the other I.e getting lots of colostrum doesn’t mean you’ll also have a good milk supply. How can that be if those foods can bring on both? Is it because the placenta “cancels it out” before birth? I’d really like to breastfeed (combi) if possible (for personal reasons I don’t think I can physically produce milk and if so it will be extremely small amounts) so that’s why I’m interested if there’s ways of potentially increasing supply! ☺️

Hi @Amy, yes the placenta shooting out estrogen and progesterone blocks out the ability to produce milk as the levels of these two hormones are higher than the amount of prolactin pumped out. After childbirth and removal of the placenta, it takes a couple of days for the estrogen and progesterone to return to normal levels, and breast milk will come in. Of course, every woman is different in terms of when and how much they can supply. All the foods listed above will help to improve milk supply! I'm hoping to breastfeed if I can (ideally), so I hoped to share this with other mums wanting to breastfeed too x

@India amazing thank you! best of luck for us both then!🤞🏼☺️ xx

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