Interesting concept about full breasts being a sign of effective breastfeeding. I work at two hospitals and noticed that it is a rare mother who does NOT get lots of IV fluids for one reason or another to the point where that mother has swollen ankles, hands and eventually very swollen breasts. I think these are related since the blood feeds the breasts (lots of blue lines appear on the breasts during pregnancy) and the IV fluids are in the tissues and in the blood (increasing blood pressure for some).
Those of you who breastfed babies when mothers were told to limit feeding time to one minute per breast per day postpartum was popular and then to follow up that time with giving water via bottle. The mothers had extremely swollen, full breasts from *lack* of breastfeeding. It was a welcomed relief when the "new" theory came out that mothers were supposed to breastfeed as baby needed and not to give anything else, unless medically indicated.
Breasts were so much more comfortable, and not overfull- one might not notice that milk production increased except for signs in baby.
Terriann Shell
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