talk to me about your "let-down"

[elevena true]

sometimes i think that i have never had a normal let down. this is the third babe i have nursed.....and yet, i still don't know what the let down is supposed to be like.

i know not every woman feels it, and often times i do feel it, and it is especially clear when i start leaking from the other side. i just think that for me it is usually still pretty slow and short. the major thing i am focused on is when i know it is not happening.

sometimes, no matter how i try to condition myself, the milk is THERE and i cannot get it to flow. this happens with the babe, the pump, and hand expressing. i can feel milk in my breast, it just refuses to come out, no matter how i massage, relax, etc. what do you do when this happens? does this happen to anyone else? want to tell me what your let down is like?

[love4bob]

I just have to say that I have this issue too! I don't know if I've ever really felt a let down or not... My boobs are FULL of milk, but I can't pump any out, and it doesn't seem like baby is really getting much out either. I hear him swallow, and he isn't constantly hungry, but my breasts don't empty. I'm curious to see what others have to say about it!

[Italiamom]

Elevena, do you recall in the birth of any of your LOs the urge to push? For me, that urge was uncontrollable and overwhelming. I didn't have to focus very much on the pushing because my body was just DOING it. Let down for me is like pushing with my boobs, on a less grandiose scale. There is that sudden feeling of "here we go" and the desire for that milk to come out NOW. Physically let down feels like electricity running through my breasts, but the ejection reflex I think really well describes my part beyond just the physical sensation. I get that need for release feeling, the desperation for the milk to just be OUT PLEASE! When either of my babies pop(ped) off at let down, there's really a momentary panic there, like an interrupted contraction.

Was there anything that helped you to relax during you labors with you babies? Or any thoughts or mantras that helped during the pushing stage? Maybe they would help with let down too. Both pushing and nursing are labors of love, after all...

(PLEASE know that I'm not saying that you *just* need to relax. Birthing babies and growing babies are both SO much more complex than that!!)

[jillybeans]

I was like this EXACTLY, until about 6 months into nursing my third baby, and all of a sudden WHAM I get major letdown sensations. Totally freaked me out. I have no idea what changed, or why I never really got much milk or felt letdown before.

[egmaranian]

I think I have the same problem that you described! The only way I ever know if I've had a let down is if I can see the baby's swallowing motion change. Most of the time I don't have one at all and on the rare occasion that I do, it only lasts less than a minute.

[veggiemomto2]

For me let down is a huge stinging sensation. Almost painful, even.

[kylaskye]

Originally Posted by veggiemomto2 

For me let down is a huge stinging sensation. Almost painful, even.

I feel this too. Wasn't sure what it was. 

[veggiemomto2]

Originally Posted by kylaskye 

I feel this too. Wasn't sure what it was. 

I was in Trader Joe's the other day and said to the lady checking me out "oh no I don't need any help, husband is in the car with the baby" BAM! Sting for a few seconds and then I'm wet. Lovely.

[jillybeans]

lol, that happened to me while filling a prescription at the store! I put my hands on my purse so I could lean my nips against them to stop the flow. Must have looked nuts!

[mareseatoats]

We have thrush so I've been topless around the house the better part of three days now and I cannot believe how much milk leaks out of my breasts. Letdown for me is usually like Michelle said, electricity running through my breasts. I get it after Mal latches on while I'm looking down at him, and then just at completely random times. Sometimes because I'm thinking of him or he's making sound, but other times it seems entirely out of the blue.

[ursusarctos]

I also don't usually feel it. Most of the time, if anything, I get a slight tingling in my nipples and a minute later the milk starts dripping. I have only twice, completely randomly, felt "contractions" inside my breast as I've heard it described by other people and only for a second. It almost always lets down in both breasts at once.

I certainly don't have trouble getting milk out to feed the baby, or at random times when my boobs decide to let down, but when I want to express a few drops to put in DD's eye I usually need to tell my breast to let the milk down. Literally. Then it comes out. I can't just milk myself, it doesn't work. I suspect you've already tried everything like that though elevena... I'm sorry you're having issues with this and I hope you find something soon that makes it easier!

[Baby_Cakes]

Mines like an electric tingle, a warm rush that I feel once the milk starts flowing.  

When pumping, I sometimes have that full sensation but the milk won't flow.  Looking at pictures of the baby helped me in the past, or if baby was around, just looking at them, smelling their scent, etc could help me relax and have a let down.  This may sound strange, but for me it is a lot like trying too hard to have an orgasm during sex, it just won't happen.  You have to let go completely and just feel what is going on and live in that moment.  It'll come, it'll happen.  You can't force a let down any more than you can force an orgasm.  Don't think about the mechanics.  Just feel, sense, breathe.  Experience.  

[bobbinbopbop]

my boobs get warm and feel engorged even though they are still slightly squishy. i also will feel a tingly electric sensation like others have described. i don't notice the tingly feeling each time though. right now i tend to notice a wet spot where the milk has run down my chest onto my pants or top. :P or onto baby. 

[kylaskye]

Originally Posted by bobbinbopbop 

my boobs get warm and feel engorged even though they are still slightly squishy. i also will feel a tingly electric sensation like others have described. i don't notice the tingly feeling each time though. right now i tend to notice a wet spot where the milk has run down my chest onto my pants or top. :P or onto baby. 

Babe pops off the breast a lot, and I'll just keep dripping until I press something against my breast. 

[Inali]

Let down for me, like some of the others, is rather painful....  It happens whenever and is sort of a global bee sting/cramping sensation.  Definitely not a delightful tingling sensation!  And then I drip/squirt everywhere!

[katiemaeeee]

I just started feeling the "let-down" a couple of days ago, shortly after getting used to using the double electric pump, not sure what's up with that though. It is not a comfortable feeling at all!! Its reassuring to see you all with the same feelings. It seems to bring with it a creepy-crawly feeling of doom. It is only for a few seconds, but my goodness. Creepy.

[elevena true]

thank you ladies for all of your imput!!

it is super funny to me, but in the few days since starting this thread, i have had so many more let downs! at least, very noticable ones that happen outside of babe feeding. it's not that i haven't noticed before, they just have increased fivefold. i have literally been leaking all over everything. i am hoping that all of the time i have been putting into pumping (still pumping ten times a day or as much as i can manage!) and all the ridiculous amounts of herbs i've been including in the daily regiment are coming to fruit. funny though, because when i start leaking i kind of freak out about getting babe on the breast or catching the milk...." my precious milkies, don't let me waste my precious milkies!" i'm still not in the clear as far as my supply, nowhere near the clear, but the road ahead looks brighter....

it is interesting to me, though, that there is such a range of what we experience, in the way of how the let down feels.

[cat13]

Originally Posted by elevena true 

." my precious milkies, don't let me waste my precious milkies!" 

[doulawho]

There is a name for that creepy/doom feeling! It is called dysphoric milk ejection reflex (d-mer). I have it too. Not everyone has it, it is just a weird thing some of us experience. I had it the worst with my first of 3, and now with the 3rd isn't so bad, in fact, I have been able to relax into the feelings and now it is more of an intense "high" type feeling. 

What I hate is how having a let-down while I'm eating totally takes away my appetite. Does that happen to anyone else? I think it may be part of d-mer...

[ChemistryClass]

I never knew that feeling had a name! I thought it was just a personal issue.