How does this mother know her previous babies could not transfer any 
milk? Did anyone do some test weights or teach her about active sucking 
and diaper counts? What kind of childbirth situations did she have and 
how early did she give up? I see so many women supplementing by bottle 
large amounts starting on day 1 that I am never sure anymore if they 
really had "no milk." Plus if the childbirth situation were one with 
lots of pain medications (before and after birth), the baby may not have 
learned to properly suck at the breast but could passively swallow on 
the bottle.

This is a situation where a full breastfeeding and childbirth history 
may give some clues. If mom had non-medicated labors to 40 weekers and 
gave no formula until much later in the first week when baby was not 
thriving and needed something to eat, then I would suspect low milk 
supply. I would also ask about birth control methods and when they were 
started.

I'd suggest doing some really good counseling with her on how to latch 
on, how to know baby is sucking well (rapid jaw movements in a long 
pattern before a short pause then getting going again). The BF Atlas 
says babies suck 10-30 times in a row and I would second this from my 
observation that it takes about 10 or more sucks in a row to transfer 
milk. By day 3, one should hear swallowing sounds, too. Then on day 3-4, 
I would do some test weights on the right scale to see how much is being 
transfered at the breast. If bottles were used from the beginning with 
her other babies, I would caution her to not do this and to observe baby 
on day 1 and 2 for appropriate sucking and watch diaper counts and 
weight loss. I would also counsel her on how milk transfer on day 1-2 
and into day 3 is small amounts.

My girlfriend and I laugh over how she and I both could not hand express 
or pump much milk but we both successfully breastfed several babies who 
were fat little things on our milk. I would want to know what kind of 
pump she tried and how many times, also.

Kathy Eng, BSW, IBCLC

             ***********************************************

To temporarily stop your subscription: set lactnet nomail
To start it again: set lactnet mail (or digest)
To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet
All commands go to [log in to unmask]

The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(R)
mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html