Breastfeeding/Lactation Consultant

Kris, sorry I missed your original post..........more

Here's what I did. My natural tendency was to become more and more tense the more Kevin became frustrated and pulled and tugged on the breast waiting for let down. He would often pop off the breast and wail only to latch back on over and over again. The more he popped off the tenser I got, the tenser I got the more delayed my let down would be. After a while I figured out I could use my deep abdominal breathing as learned in childbirth class, to keep myself from becoming so frazzled. As soon as Kevin would start to fuss at the breast I would close my eyes and deep breath from the belly and keep my muscles relaxed as possible, trying to distract myself from Kevin's frustation. Soon my body started to respond by letting down when I did the breathing and Kevin responded as well b/c he knew when I started to breath deeply that meant the milk was coming. Sometimes he would calmly wait but even if he didn't calm down (which he didn't always) at least I was not feeding into his upset as I had in the past by becoming tense myself. The other thing it did was give me the feeling of control, that I was doing something useful or active about the "problem". I think my calmer approach also helped Kevin b/c as I approached it with a calm sense that "everything would be ok" Kevin picked up on that and settled more easily. (actually that is a neat trick if you can master it in many situations with your kids....acting as if you really are sure about how you are handling those tough sitations.....don't let them know you are unsure at times it scares them even if they dissagree with you).

The let down reflex is partially a conditioned response, similar to your mouth watering when you see a picture of your favorite food, you are really responding to your memory of how good that food is, not the picture. So almost anything you would do regularly in association with let down would soon start to signal your breasts to let down. If the deep abdominal breathing is not for you, try using a favorite soothing piece of music, massaging your breasts, softly singing, any activity that helps to relax you. Whatever you choose to do, do it consistantly and make it something you will be able to do anywhere (for example using a warm wet compress on the breast might not be easy in the mall but deep breathing can be done anywhere)

Some additional easy breathing/ relaxation techniques: Breath from your abdomin. To check this put your hands on your chest and belly. When abdominal breathing your belly should rise and fall not your chest. Slow your breathing to a comfortable slow (practice when not bf). Some additions to this technique are to imagine warmth, love, serenity, etc, whatever word works for you, coming into your body with each inhalation, (imagine it filling your body as though you are a hollow vessel) imagine pain, tension, fear, leaving with each exhale and getting blown far away. OR, use a count down. Count down from 10 and tell yourself you will be completely relaxed by the time you get to 0. With the first inhale imagine a number 10 approaching you (you can imagine a plain or colored and patterned number 10) as you exhale imagine the number 10 getting smaller and smaller as it leaves you. With the next inhale a number 9 approaches getting biger and bigger and with the exhale it gets smaller and disappears.....and so on and so on until you get to 0. Some women use visualizations such as being on the beach or other relaxing place. Use all five senses, imagine the sights, smells such as the salt air, sensations such as the feel of the sand under you or the warmth of the sun on your skin, imagine tastes and what you might hear too. Some women imagine their milk flowing or use images of water falls etc. There are many ways to learn relaxation techniques and they are useful in more than just this situation.

Try not to worry, the milk is there, it is just flowing more slowly. Your baby will adjust, try to maintain a confident approach and your baby will be reassured things are ok too.

Get back and let me know if this helped or if you have any more questions.

Warmly, Kathy

thanks so much, Kathy! I will try this out & let you know how it goes :) ~kris