Preparing for Prenatal Breastfeeding
The body of expectant mothers begins to prepare naturally for milk production. There is no need to do anything special in breast care during pregnancy. From the fourth and fifth months of pregnancy, the breasts can produce milk with the secretion of the hormone responsible for milk production, called prolactin.
You don’t need to do anything special for breast care. However, as the breast tissue grows, it is appropriate to use a giant bra that provides the necessary support and does not tighten.
It would be best if you did not use soap, lotion, and alcohol for breast cleaning. It would help if you cleaned with lukewarm water only.
Anatomy and Physiology of Breast Milk Production
Breast Anatomy and Its Importance
Special glands in the breast tissue produce breast milk. The milk produced is carried towards the nipple by long thin channels. Under the brown areola layer around the nipple, long canals expand and serve to store milk. These wide channels open to the nipple.
In a good breastfeeding technique, the dark-coloured part of the areola should be placed in the mouth while the baby is holding the breast. If the baby suckles only on the nipple, not much milk comes in, and the nipple is damaged and cracked in a short time.
Because it causes pain, the mother cannot breastfeed her baby adequately, and this causes problems in the breast. For this reason, the mother should take care that the areola layer, along with the nipple, enters the baby’s mouth during breastfeeding.
Mechanisms That Provide Milk Formation
There are sensory nerves in the nipples. When babies suck on the breast, the stimulus they make here reaches the brain via nerves.
These stimuli from a particular area in the brain eventually release a hormone (prolactin). This hormone reaches the breasts through the blood, and its job is to provide milk production. Therefore, it is crucial to breastfeeding as soon as possible after birth. Babies are very lively and hungry when they are born.
In the first 30 minutes to an hour after birth, the baby should be on the mother’s breast or abdomen in skin-to-skin contact. The sooner the mother breastfeeds the baby, the sooner the milk will come. Since mothers do not know about this issue, they wait until their milk comes.
As a result, milk arrives late, and its production is insufficient.
For this reason, they feel the need to give the baby formula and similar liquids. This chain of adverse events ends with the early loss of breast milk. Babies should not be given water or sugar water after birth, and it is wrong to provide water or sugary water as the first choice just after birth because breast milk is not enough.
When babies are born, they are born with enough water in their bodies to last them four days. Until the mother’s milk becomes abundant, this excess water meets their needs.
As a result of early watering, babies are reluctant to suckle.
As a result, the abundance of mother’s milk is delayed, and the impact goes as far as giving additional food. Thus, the mother’s milk is cut off before it becomes abundant. Therefore, babies should not be given water after birth. As the baby’s reserve water tank decreases in the first few days of life, milk production will increase as the mother will more willingly suckle.
Thus, the milk will be abundant and will meet all the needs of the baby. Another adverse effect of sugar water is that stomach tension and low blood sugar within physiological limits are the most critical factors in hunger.
Because it feels complete, it does not absorb the breast effectively. As a result, breast milk cannot reproduce adequately. In addition, the sugar in sugar water quickly mixes with the blood and raises the blood sugar level.
Since the high blood sugar suppresses hunger, the baby does not take the trouble of sucking the mother’s breast or sucks less. As a result, the abundance of breast milk is delayed. Apart from these, as a result of giving water or sugar water, babies are deprived of taking the first milk (mouth); many properties prevent infection in the first milk.
These must reach the baby; the first milk is considered the baby’s first vaccine. It is carried out by another hormone (Oxytocin), which is responsible for delivering the milk made in the breast to the nipple through the milk ducts when the baby suckles its mother.
Thus, when the wide channels in which milk is stored are empty, they are constantly filled with milk coming from above. As the baby suckles, the milk tanks fill up again and again. Another effect of this hormone is on the uterus, and Oxytocin contracts the uterus (womb) and contributes to minor bleeding and the uterus to collect itself.
Mothers’ Concerns About Their Milk in the First Days
Breasts are empty right after birth, and most mothers are concerned about empty breasts in the first few days. When asked why she doesn’t breastfeed, she answers, “I haven’t had any milk yet.” However, there was little milk production in the first days. The milk formed on the first day is called the mouth.
The baby must suckle as long. As the baby continues to suckle, the mother’s milk increases from the third or fourth day.
If the babies are not breastfed in the first days because the milk is not coming, the milk coming will be delayed. Therefore, babies should be breastfed frequently, starting immediately after birth. Thus, milk production increases and the breasts become tense.
Mothers feel that their breasts are tightening, and they understand that they have enough milk. However, in the following weeks, since the breasts are emptied very well due to the perfect sucking of the babies, softening and loss of tension occur. It is a regular occurrence.
Milk production is still sufficient, but mothers wrongly perceive this breast’s softening and complain that their milk decreases. As a result of this wrong belief, they rush to start additional food.
As a result, the mother’s milk decreases. In reality, as the months’ progress, the amount of milk made in the breast gradually increases. This increase continues until the baby’s fourth and sixth months, meeting all the baby’s needs, including water. Mothers should know that softening in the breast is normal.
Mistakes Made in the First Days
During breastfeeding, both the nipple and the dark-coloured part of the nipple should completely enter the mouth, which is the most effective form of breastfeeding.
In such breastfeeding, the areola is rubbed with the tongue as the areola enters the mouth. Since milk pools are just below the areola, milk comes from the nipple to the baby’s oral cavity due to stroking. The most critical mistake made is to give only the nipple of the baby into the mouth.
With the sucking of the nipple, enough milk cannot reach the baby’s mouth; there is a pain in the nipple. Cracks appear. The production of hormones does not match the desired level. The baby gives up the breast because there is not enough milk. The mother also thinks that there is not enough milk.
Proper Breastfeeding Technique
For proper breastfeeding, the mother should choose the most comfortable position. The mother’s holding position is one of the essential factors in successful breastfeeding. The baby’s head and body should be facing the mother. The mother should support the baby under and back with one hand. It is a wrong practice to support the baby from the head.
When you hold the baby by the head, he throws his head back with a reflex. This situation makes him difficult to hold the breast and makes the baby angry. As a result, breastfeeding fails from the start.
The mother rubs the nipple on the baby’s cheek. This process awakens the search reflex and allows the baby to turn to the breast. During orientation, the baby opens his mouth. When the baby opens his mouth widest, the mother places the base of the areola on the baby’s lower lip. The mother quickly brings the baby closer to the breast. Thus, the mother puts most of the areola into the baby’s mouth.
If there is a pain in the nipple quickly, if there is not enough milk, and if the baby has difficulty sucking the breast, it is necessary to think there is a mistake in the breastfeeding technique. There should be no soreness or pain in the mother’s breast in the correct breastfeeding position.
Benefits of Breastfeeding for Baby and Mom
- Breast milk meets all the nutritional needs of the baby for growth and development.
- Middle ear infections, allergic diseases, vomiting, diarrhoea, meningitis and lung conditions are less common in babies whose mothers breastfeed, and it is easy to digest for babies.
- Always ready. Nothing is needed to prepare.
- It ensures the establishment of an extraordinary emotional and physical bond between the mother and the baby.
- It helps the mother to shed excess weight after birth by consuming calories during breastfeeding.
- The risk of ovarian and breast cancer is more diminutive in breastfeeding mothers.
- It strengthens the mother’s bone structure and prevents bone fractures in advanced ages.
- It delays the mother’s return to her regular menstrual cycle. Although this will delay the subsequent pregnancy, it is not a method of contraception.
- Breastfeeding accelerates the return of the mother’s uterus to regular sizes.
We have a advice to find more!
How to Should Twin Babies Be Breastfeed? – https://www.bebek.com/en/how-should-twin-babies-be-breastfeed/
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