Marley asks about time taken by a baby to empty the breast...
No, it is no longer possible to say it takes x amount of time to empty the
breast.  Peter Hartman has published research in the last couple of years
on breast capacity.  Each breast has its own 'full' capacity which may be
500ml for one woman (or one breast) and 150ml for another woman (or her
other breast!).  So the woman who has the 500ml capacity may find that the
baby doesn't empty her breast (so to speak - let's not get into whether a
breast is ever empty or not) until the 20th feed of the day at about 11pm
(don't forget it is attempting to refill all the time).  While the mother
with the 150ml capacity may find her baby drains her breast very well at
every feed.

Continuing to answer the question - let's say we are talking about the
mother with the 150ml capacity whose baby happens to want all 150ml this
feed.  The variability now is in milk transfer rate.  How forceful and
frequent is the mother's milk ejection? How efficient is the baby? How keen
is the baby? and numerous other variables which will make every feeding for
even the same mother very different.

I wonder why you asked this question... is it because many of your mothers
ask how long a breastfeed should take?  or because your work colleagues are
telling mothers they can take the baby off the breast after 10 mins because
otherwise he's just using you as a dummy :-( Don't you just love it!!!

Depending on what the mother wants to know I may go into breast capacity
stuff, but generally they are very happy with my description of a
breastfeed being like a 5 course meal - soup, entree, main, dessert,
choccies with coffee.  Some feeds the baby may only want the soup. Other
feeds the baby may want the 5 courses (the one hour feed) but mother is
very busy - so long as she has watched his feeding pattern and seen that he
at least got to the main then she can apologise to him and say 'later'.
Hopefully at least once a day she'll have the time to sit down, feet up,
relaxed and let baby have the full 5 courses - I encourage it at least once
a day, mentioning how rich in fats those drops of milk are by the time they
are at the chocolate stage, and how much the baby enjoys it.

On the other hand, with my work colleagues, I give them all 6 barrels (is
that right, don't know much about guns!) about research, staying up to
date, old wives tales, breasts are brilliant, babies know how much they
need, etc.  And of course, look for poor latch/supply if baby needs to have
extended breastfeeds every feed.

Denise
****************************************************
Denise Fisher, BN, RM, IBCLC
BreastEd Online Lactation Studies Course
http://www.breasted.com.au
mailto:[log in to unmask]
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