Not enough milk?

[larzanna]

Hi there:

I wanted to ask if anyone knows the % of women who REALLY can't make enough milk/low supply. Is there a study that you can point me to? A journal article? Something?
Not the ones who "tried to BF" but supplimented early, hospital gave a paci, ect ect and kinda messed up the whole process.
I'm talking about the women who really did "everything right" got support and for whatever biological reason their bodies just won't do it.

Thanks. I just have recently heard SSSSOOOOOO many women say, ohhh i just didn't make any milk, it got me to wondering, in a society with information, support ect what the % or number really is. Because right now one would think like 50% can't!
Any actual studies would be really helpful.

Thanks!
-L

[PatioGardener]

There is no number, because there just haven't been good studies on the issue.

Many books seem to pull 5% or 3% out fo the air, but never reference it.

There was a cohort study in the USA among higher socioeconomic status white women that found 5% had 'primary' supply issues - that is issues inherent to their anatomy or physiology, and another 10% had low supply from secondary issues (be it a baby who couldn't latch well, scheduled feeds etc) that could not get up to making enough milk to exclusively feed their babies.

This was an interesting study, but the numbers were small and the population very specific - I wouldn't want to use it to generalise to a larger population or even the USA as a whole. The primary author was Neifert - if you can't find it by googling send me a PM and I'll dig up the reference for you.

[AislinCarys]

It is very difficult to distinguish between primary and secondary low milk supply in some cases.

In my case, I did everything "right", except I did not know that a baby could be latched on perfectly, and then still nursing passively for most of the time (she'd feed actively for a few minutes, and then just keep sucking but stop swallowing). She was always at the breast. At 4 weeks she started losing weight.

However, we don't know if it was my low supply that caused her to feed the way she was (tired maybe? she hardly ever slept, except a few hours at night), or if her passive suck caused my supply to dip. Or if they were entirely unrelated.

Btw, I would say much more than 50%, where I live at the moment (Sweden). Almost all mums initiate breastfeeding, most end up supplementing with formula, few don't say they have low supply.