Chiropractic May Help New Mothers Produce Milk

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Most weeks I find myself speaking on the phone with any number of mother’s who are struggling to produce enough breast milk for their infants.

Firstly, it is important to establish if there is good reason for their concern. This will primarily depend on the age of the baby, e.g. it is fairly common initially for a newborn breastfed baby to lose weight. If the mother has received correct breastfeeding advice, and both she and her newborn have been checked by their chiropractor post-birth to promote correct feeding postures, then it may just be a matter of time before milk flows on demand. Most often though, it flows when it is not on demand as well  – God bless breast pads!!!

(If breastfeeding is hindered by colic please see the blog post titled – “Effective Ways to Relieve Colic“)

If anyone suggests, even a professional, that your newborn is losing weight because you can’t produce enough milk then get a second opinion. Babies are born with an excess of fluids, which is one reason why they lose weight after they are born. It is normal for a newborn to lose weight in the first few weeks and some mother-baby-duo’s take a little extra time to conquer breastfeeding.

Upon reflection, learning how to breastfeed our third baby was much harder for me than our first two. All babies are different, all circumstances unique.

Each individual baby will vary with how they gain weight. Most babies lose weight in the first week but a fully breastfed baby will then generally gain weight rapidly, often doubling or tripling their birth weight in the first four to five months. After this, their weight gain will slow markedly.

As I discuss in “Well Adjusted Babies” breastfeeding is not for all mother- baby- duo’s and this discussion is for mothers looking to pursue breastfeeding as far as they can.

How Do I Know If I Have Enough Milk? The Australian Breastfeeding Association outline some of the signs to look for in order to assess if a baby is receiving enough milk:

Does your baby appear healthy?
Is feeding unrestricted and at least six times per day?
Does your baby have six to eight pale yellow, wet nappies, or five heavily wet, disposable nappies per day?
Does your baby have soft bowel motions?
Is your baby’s weight trend positive?

Our body has to work hard to produce milk but we can be confident that our bodies are generally very capable of doing so. My advice for a mother of a relatively new baby who has been advised that her baby is underweight and who desperately wishes to continue breastfeeding, would be as follows;

• Seek the advice of a lactation consultant to ensure that your technique is correct and that your baby is fully draining the breast.
• Have your baby assessed by a chiropractor – birth trauma and in-utero constraint (where the baby’s ability to move around freely is hindered) can both affect a baby’s ability to breastfeed. The baby’s skull, neck and jaw malpositioning may all be contributing to their inability to suckle.
• Be assessed by a chiropractor yourself – maternal subluxations may affect your ability to produce breast milk.( Please see below…”An Article in the March 2007…”)
• Let your baby suckle and feed frequently through the day to stimulate your supply. Worry about routines later. If you are wanting your baby to gain weight, keep in mind that the fat content of hind milk increases as the interval between feeds decreases. A consistent pattern of 8 – to -12 effective breastfeeds every 24 hours should produce noticeable weight gains.
• Ensure that you are drinking plenty of water, ideally three litres. Dehydration can certainly affect your supply, for example, I always found flying and traveling would affect my quantity of milk for a couple of days.
• Get some rest.  Fatigue can affect your bodies capacity to produce milk, and unfortunately also, will most often lead to mastitis.
• Utilise the various herbs and herbal teas known to boost milk supply, these can be drunk or used in cooking. Herbs that can be taken as a tea include Milk Thistle, Vervain, Alfalfa, Aniseed, Nettle and Fennel (use as a vegetable or as tea), Red Clover and Raspberry Leaf. There are also specific breastfeeding teas you can purchase at some health food stores. Weleda is one such brand, there are others but their names escape me. Fenugreek can be used as a spice in cooking or as a tea, while Parsley can be eaten fresh or utilised in cooking.
• Seeing a Kinesiologist may help with any mixed emotions you may have around your capacity to mother. A skilled kinesiologist can be such an asset to your family over the years.
• There may also be Naturopathic herbal liquids that may help build milk supplies.

An article in the March 2007 issue of the scientific periodical, the Journal of Clinical Chiropractic Pediatrics (1), presents three documented case studies of chiropractic care helping new mothers who were unable to produce adequate mother`s milk.  A reduction in mothers milk, known as “Hypolactation” can be a serious problem that can create health issues for both the mother and child.

The first case was a woman who went to the chiropractor on the referral of her midwife.  She had given birth 10 days earlier to her second child, and unlike her first, she was unable to establish a milk supply for her second baby.  The patient had no other medical issues other than difficulty in swallowing a glass of water. An examination determined that she had a subluxation, and specific chiropractic care was initiated to correct that issue.  After her second visit the patient commented that she found it much easier to swallow. By the third visit she noticed visible changes in her breast size and the production of milk.  This improvement resulted in a positive weight gain for the infant who was forced to depend of formula until the mothers milk issues were resolved.

The second patient went to the chiropractor for upper back pain but was also unable to produce sufficient milk to feed her one month old infant.  Her examination showed no medical history for her problems, however, the chiropractic portion of her exam showed subluxations.  She began a series of specific chiropractic adjustments for subluxation correction.  By the forth visit the patient was noticing breast enlargement and the production of milk.  She also became pain free from the upper back pain she had been experiencing.

The third case was a women who came into the chiropractor`s office with her six day old daughter.  She was sent there on the recommendation of the hospital lactation consultant. As in the previous cases, subluxations were found and care was initiated to correct them.  In this case it took only 24 hours for the positive results to show, and for this mother to be able to feed her infant naturally.

Based on their case studies and the volumes of previous research, these researchers concluded that subluxations and the neurological interference they cause play a major role in Hypolactation.  The researchers suggest, “Chiropractic evaluation for subluxations would be a key element in the holistic assessment of the failure to establish milk supply in the post partum patient.”

If the infant is older, it is important to establish if there are other factors at play that may be decreasing your supply, and assess if the desire to continue feeding is still strong. Sometimes the novelty has worn off and a Mother will need to weigh up the pro’s and con’s of continued feeding.

Yours in Health,

Dr Jennifer Barham-Floreani
B.App.Clin.Sci, B.Chiropractic

For further information and advice please also see Chapter 16, “Breastfeeding”  in Well Adjusted Babies