Milk not coming in after caesarean?

[Klynne]

My cousin, M, just gave birth by caesarean 10 days ago and has yet to have her milk come in. She has a LC from the hospital, but I'm not sure the lady is being very helpful.

M says she's trying to nurse often (not sure what "often" means to her). She's super frustrated and I would love to offer her some helpful insight. I've had no problem with nursing so I'm looking for some opinions from mammas that have gone through or are going through something similar.

If you've had a c-sec, what's your experience nursing afterwards?

[Katie T]

I dont have any personal experience but Ive read that a retained piece of placenta can interfere with the hormonal signal to start production I dont know if that could be the problem w/ a c sec though. But maybe worth checking out.

[Llyra]

I had two cesarean births, and both times my milk took awhile to come in-- about six days each time. But ten days sounds outside the normal range to me. I would definitely suspect retained placenta, in that situation. An ultrasound can find that, I'm pretty sure.

[Klynne]

Thanks ladies. I'm thinking 10 days sounds out side the norm too. I read about retained placenta, but thought that in the case of a c-sec it would be REALLY uncommon, for obvious reasons. I don't even know if her doctor would agree to check for retained placenta. I can mention it to her

My deep suspect is that she isn't putting her babe on often enough.

[BellaClaudia]

you have placenta thing covered so here is my other tip:

I have been personally though one cesarean.
Milk come in 5 days in obundance but the baby was doing really
fab job sucking. I was crying at first as we both had no idea
what to do nor me nor baby.

It is very important to make sure baby is doing right thing
latching on.

It toom 3! lactation consultants to do it right to have
me started.

The one who did it was very simple and just said..

You don't bring your brest into the baby as you are
trying to do it, you just make the baby open the mouth
wide and then you kind of sort of force baby onto the
breast.

sound simple, was simple yet then it was like
brilliant discovery. it worked immediately.

the two other ladies did not do anything despite
my wrong doings.. so I would probably give up..
and now 4 years later we are extended nursers
so .. it worked really well.

anyhow next thing is to make sure the baby really
really sucks. long and happy and both breasts.
till baby is done with one then do the other

it is not like 5 minutes per breast will do.

you really have to nurse and nurse.

I remember it was kind of nightmarihs at the beginning
because I nursed a child by hospital scheadule
every two hours for over half an hour and then
by the time I was done it was almost time to
do it again so I almost did not get any sleep.

in any case.. it is really important to nurse a lot
and on demand and beyond that if you want to
have milk come.

i would suggest pumping too to have milk come
faster but baby first as babies are most effective
suckers in the world :-)

If it is not placenta thing then I would suspect
wrong latch. and not every lactation consutlatn
is equal as I experienced it first hand.

I hope that by now there is more milk then she can handle
and that everything works fine..

oh btw.. let your friend to relax and put some
soothing music on and focus on the baby
and not to worry as worrying just work
opposite.

you need to be VERY relax at the beginning
to have letdown. few years or even months itno
it it is easier to do it on an auto pilot
but I remember being so worried and stressed
.. is it coming.. not? when .. how?
is it coming now?..

that just worrying would stop my letdown.

lastly she might try a bit of fenugreek or
alfalfa as they are both lactation helpers herbs
and safe in lactating moms.

do organic herbs and not too much, just to
get you started.