>I am hoping that someone can help me figure out if hindmilk/foremilk 
>really exisits :-)  I am working on a lactation course for the IBCLC 
>exam next July.  I am confused, because I have heard that the whole 
>concept of hindmilk is a myth and yet, Breastfeeding and Human 
>Lactation by Riordan states clearly that it exists.


Well.....I am probably not the only bf supporter/educator who thinks 
that foremilk/hindmilk are somewhat unhelpful concepts now. It was 
*good* when we got the Hartmann research that showed breastmilk 
changed its proportion of fat content as milk was removed from the 
breast - hurrah for knowledge - but *bad* when this was interpreted 
as the breasts 'produc[ing] two kinds of milk' (which is here, on one 
of our national health websites: 
http://www.nhsdirect.wales.nhs.uk/encyclopaedia/b/article/breastfeeding/) 
and all the worries that mothers get about whether the baby has 
'reached' the 'hindmilk' or is getting 'too much foremilk' and 
looking at the clock (!) to guide them....

Here in the UK, some HCPs are confused about this, and tell mothers 
their babies must stay on the breast X minutes 'or he won't get the 
hindmilk' - and a few of the most popular baby books say this, too.

This blog post has an interesting take on all this, and a good, if 
detailed, explanation, of where myth begins:

http://thefunnyshapedwoman.blogspot.co.uk/2011/05/foremilk-and-hindmilk-in-quest-of.html

She shows with her own photgraphed and analysed breastmilk samples 
that the change in fat is gradual as milk is removed.

Basically, the emptier the breast, the higher the proportion of fat 
in the milk that the baby gets when feeding. The fuller the breast, 
the lower the proportion of fat.

Calling it 'the' foremilk and 'the' hindmilk' is not - in my view - 
helpful or revealing any longer.

Heather Welford Neil
NCT bfc, tutor, UK
-- 
http://www.heatherwelford.co.uk

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