Thank you for your videos! I am going to school to become a registered dietitian and am trying to get a jump on the book and lecture material before I take the classes. Thanks again!
I'm a Board Certified Lactation Consultant, I don't normally comment on RU-vid but I felt it's important to comment on this because there are people watching this that will be working with moms and babies some day. It is not true that your milk supply will decrease due to not having adequate vitamins. Our bodies don't just stop making milk just because it wants to "make the highest quality milk". If that were the case the human race would not have survived this long. There can be vitamin deficiencies like vitamin D when the baby and the mother are both deficient and that can cause rickets... but that doesn't mean the mother doesn't have any milk or her body starts to dry up simply because the milk is lower in vitamin D. What can happen if a mother is deficient in vitamins is the mother may feel less energy and it may make breastfeeding harder for her leading to other practices like supplementing, increasing bottles, decreasing pumping which can lead to less milk. The biggest reasons for low milk supply are lack of education on supply and demand, supplementation, skipping feedings, not pumping when away from the baby, etc. And then there are underlying causes like underlying hormonal conditions (PCOS, thyroid issues for example), or issues with breast development or previous breast surgery.
Hi Rachel. I respect your position as a Board Certified Lactation Consultant and the experience you have as a result. You are correct that issues such as skipping feedings and hormonal conditions can have an impact. However, I am a Registered Dietitian myself with my own experiences and studies. I can assure you that there are many studies that you can read about the effect of nutrition on lactational capacity/performance. These studies have shown a significant difference in lactational capacity/performance between well-nourished vs not well-nourished mothers. You are right, it is not simply if you lack one vitamin such as vitamin D. But overall nutrition of the mother does have an impact on her breast milk supply, along with the factors that you have mentioned. Thank you for your input and for giving a broader view on this subject.
Thank you for your reply! I also respect your position and experience as an RD, I work with many RDs at WIC and appreciate your profession and experience! I am not disputing the fact that overall poor nutrition and health can have a negative impact on breastfeeding or milk supply. have seen it working in the WIC program for 8 years now. I have also seen many of the women I work with that have poor health, and/or vitamin deficient breastfeeding successfully (myself included). Yes, the body will still make milk if the only issue is that she is deficient in a certain vitamin(s). That was the point I was focusing on. Our bodies will take what it needs for baby from mom or the milk can be lower in those vitamins (which is not ideal either). The health status of women in the United States is definitely impacting their ability to breastfeed because of generations of poor health and obesity. That, and our healthcare providers lack of education and support in breastfeeding (and employers, daycares, family, the list goes on). Thank you again for the discussion and taking the time to respond!
