115. Lactation Q&A with Bri: Part 2

These are the answers to the questions YOU have. In this episode I'll answer:
- Struggled with supply with first. Currently preg with #2. Any tips for more success this time?
- Bottle recommendations? Do you need each size nipple?
- One boob is bigger than the other and the baby doesn’t like that side as much?
- Is it okay to have a slacker boob? Do you have to fix it?
- My cup size increased a lot with breastfeeding. Will it go back down after I finish?
- When do boobs stop hurting after a miscarriage?

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Read the full transcript here: 

Welcome to the Breezy Babies Podcast, where we talk about all things boobs, babies, and breastfeeding. This is episode 115, Q and A with Brie, part two. I'm brie the IBCLC and I made brizzy babies with you in mind to help ease your transition into parenthood. Becoming a parent changes your life in every way imaginable. Bumps in the road are going to come up as you move into your new role, but my goal is to help smooth out those bumps and help you become the most confident parent you can be. With good education and support, I know you can meet your breastfeeding and parenting goals. Let's do this together. Hey, friends. Back for part two of this fun Q and A with you. I hope I can speak during this podcast episode. I couldn't quite even record my intro because I couldn't say Breezy babies, which is not a good sign ever, especially because that is the name of my business. Oh, man, that's just how it goes. Sometimes you can't quite get the words out. But I am excited to be back with you and answer more of your questions. If you missed last week's podcast, you're going to want to listen to that first because this is part two. Last week was part one. I am answering your questions that you submitted to me on Instagram, and these are just going to be quick, just short answers to these questions. I am going to try and do this as quickly as possible so I can get to all of the questions that were submitted, at least all the ones that were submitted that I could answer quickly. There are many others that were submitted that really I cannot answer without a full podcast episode or some of them. I already do have podcast episodes on those topics, so I linked those. If you ever have topics that you are looking for, if you're wondering if there's a podcast episode on it, I highly suggest to go to Breezybabies.com. There is a search function and you can just type something in like Weaning or Sleep Regression or Latch, and all of the podcast episodes that are related to that topic will pop up. You can click on it. It'll tell you the episode number. You can listen to it on my website, or you can search for that episode number on Apple Podcast or Spotify or wherever. You are listening to this episode right now. So that's the search function. Or if you ever need help, you can always just message me at breezybabies on Instagram or email me brie at breezybabies. And hey, if you don't already know, your insurance may cover free consultations with myself or with Lex on my team. No matter where you live, we meet with clients all over the world. In fact, just recently, I've met with clients who live in North Carolina, Texas, Florida, all over the United States. I even met with clients in the Middle East. That's the farthest away. But I've had a handful of clients in the Middle East, which is so fun. I love meeting with clients no matter where they live in the entire world. So if you want to know if your insurance covers free consults, you can always click the link in my bio. I feel like I'm on Instagram right now. The link in my show notes or I also accept selfpay@breezybabies.com. All right, you're ready for me to answer more of your questions? Let's get going and see if we can finish up these last handful of questions. So the first one that I want to answer today is this mom said struggled with supply with first, currently pregnant with number two. Any tips for more success this time? All right, I love that question. First, I want to say that every breastfeeding journey is so different. I have helped clients for the first time, their first time having an IBCLC with their fifth or 6th baby. They never had troubles with their others, or maybe they just didn't breastfeed with their others. But all of that is to say that every baby is so different. Babies have different personalities. They have different anatomy as well in their body, in their mouth. And things like that can totally affect breastfeeding as well. So I would, first off, say that just because you had struggles with another baby does not mean that you're guaranteed to have struggles with your second baby. Now, depending on what your struggles were, that will help me know more if you're more likely to have that same struggle with your second baby. Because what I would want to know is if your low supply was either primary or secondary. So what I mean by that is primary is caused by a medical condition like low thyroid or high thyroid. Or it also can be something like an anatomical issue, like maybe you had breast surgery before, you had something removed from your breast before, like a tumor or cyst. Those are things that can cause a primary low milk supply. Okay? So if something like that is the same thing that's going on when you're having your second baby, then, yes, that may cause low supply with your second baby. But what I see more commonly happening is secondary low supply. So what that means is that your supply is low because you possibly did not thoroughly or regularly remove milk from your breast. That's the actual definition of secondary low supply. Okay? You did not thoroughly or regularly remove milk from your breasts. So secondary low milk supply is way more common than primary. Primary for sure happens. There are some people that have low milk supply no matter what they try with any of their babies. But what I see happen more commonly is things just kind of get in the way of setting up a good milk supply from the very beginning. For example, maybe you had a rough delivery, your baby had to be separated from you after being born, spent some time in the NICU, maybe you hemorrhaged after your delivery, those would be circumstances that could cause a low milk supply for you and your baby to be separated, not draining milk effectively. And that doesn't mean that that's going to happen with your second baby. If you can keep your baby close, if you can keep the milk moving, if you can shoot for effective latches and double check that your baby doesn't have any tongue ties or lip ties or anything restrictive going on in their body, then yes, you can totally have a completely different experience with your second baby. So again, if you're kind of nervous going into this, I would highly suggest working with an IBC to get you feeling confident. All right, next question. Bottle recommendations. So this was the actual question. She said bottle recommendations. And do you need each size nipple? Okay, so when it comes to bottles, there's not necessarily only one brand that I recommend, but I just want to give you some examples on this podcast so you can kind of get an idea of some that I love and some that I don't love. So to start out, when it comes to the shape of a bottle nipple, I like one that has a gradual slope. I don't like one that's just a nipple with a really flat bottom. So a really popular bottle that I don't love the shape of is the Tommy Tippy. Not to call anyone out on this podcast, but that's just a really well known one. Most people know what that looks like. So you can picture it in your head how it's kind of just like the nipple and then a flat surface underneath. I don't love that shape for getting a good, effective latch. An example of a bottle nipple that I do love is the Doctor Brown. That one has a more gradual slope. Not to say that those are the only two bottles to choose from, but I just wanted to give you some examples so you can kind of picture in your mind what I am talking about. So that's what you're looking for when you're choosing a bottle and a nipple. And when it comes to having different size of nipples, I would start with only buying the size zero or the newborn size. Okay. Because chances are you actually will be able to stick with that, especially if you are going between breast and bottle, because you don't want a fast flowing bottle. Or your baby might not be too interested in the breast when she comes back, especially if you go to work all day and she's just getting fast flowing milk all throughout the day, she's not going to be too interested in latching and having to work for that milk if that's what's going on. So you want to start with a size zero, a slow flow nipple, and over time if you notice that maybe your baby's getting frustrated, you could try and size up, but chances are you're not going to have to size up very much. There's many of my clients who just stick with the slow flow the entire time that their baby gets a bottle and they're still breastfeeding, but you kind of want to match up the flow of the nipple with the flow of your milk. So I do have some clients that have fast flowing milk and their baby can size up a nipple size without getting frustrated when they come back to the breast. Okay, so there's my quick answer for that next one. One boob is bigger than the other and baby doesn't like that side as much. Okay, isn't that so funny that we have two breaths and yet they can be so different? Many things on our body are not symmetrical. And even though sometimes we assume that our breasts would be identical twins, they are not. Sometimes they are sisters and sometimes they are long lost cousins twice remote. I don't even know if that's a thing, but you get what I'm trying to say. Our breasts can look and feel and just act very, very differently. You can have different amount of milk ducts in between your two breaths. In fact, you most certainly have different amount of milk ducts between your two breasts. You have different nipple shapes between your two breasts. You have a different amount of poor openings that the milk comes out of. So slight differences like that are totally common and to be expected. And it's very common that babies can kind of just prefer one breast over the other over time. Okay, so that is totally fine. That's no problem. If you ever want to give more stimulation to kind of that smaller side, sometimes we call it the slacker boob. Then you can start your baby on that side for feeds or maybe do some power pumping on that side to kind of boost supply a little bit. But overall, don't get too caught up. Now, if it does become extreme, let's say that one side is completely drying up and there's a really big difference between the sizes of both breasts. One thing that you can consider is your baby's alignment. Maybe your baby could benefit from some bodywork. Now of course I can't give medical advice on this podcast, so you would want to work one on one with an IBC to see if that's what's going on in your case. Let's move to the next question. I kind of already answered this. Is it okay to have a slacker boob? Do you have to fix it? I kind of already answered that, but it's pretty normal to have a slacker boob. Your breasts are never going to be 100% equal. There's always going to be one side that makes just a little bit more than the other. Now if that's your case, that's fine. They don't have to be exactly equal. And in fact, they can't be exactly equal. You're always going to have one that just produces a little bit more. Maybe your baby just prefers that side, so it is fine. But if you do feel like you want to even it out, you're feeling a little lopsided. Maybe your brows aren't fitting quite right. Maybe you feel like it's noticeable that one breast is bigger than the other from the clothes you're wearing. Then you can remove more milk from that slacker side. More stimulation, more milk removal will help to boost the supply on the other side. All right, let's move to the next question. This question is my cup size increased a lot with breastfeeding? Will it go back down after I finish? Isn't it so amazing how our bodies respond to prepare to feed your baby even when you're pregnant? You probably noticed that your breast grew in size and some of that was just fat, like extra fat stores in your breasts, because your body's like, oh, Kate, we're growing a baby. We know a baby is coming. We want to prepare these breasts to feed this baby after they are born. So you may have noticed that your cup even increased while you were pregnant. Now, if it didn't increase at all, that is something that you want to talk with your IBC about. That could be important information about how your supply is going to be after your baby comes. But it's also very common for everyone to have their breasts grow after giving birth. Especially in those first few days after your baby is born, your milk starts to transition. You start to have more milk volume come in. You feel very full and very engorged. And even once you get past that engorgement phase, your breasts are just a little bit bigger than they were before you had your baby. So that is completely normal. Now, in regards to the question, will it go back down after you finished breastfeeding? I don't really have an answer for you that is going to be very individualized. Some of my clients have their breasts go back down to their exact cup size before they got pregnant. Some of my clients will have their breasts be smaller than before they ever got pregnant. And then I also have clients who their breasts grow and they stay larger after they have their baby. So I have no way of answering or even guessing what will happen in your specific situation. There's really no way to know. So it might be a little bit of a surprise for you. And a little side note right here. We actually have found that saggy breasts are more effective from being are more affected by being pregnant then breastfeeding. So sometimes breastfeeding kind of gets a bad rap, like, oh, if you breastfeed, then your breast will get saggy. Well, it actually has more to do with the hormones that are released while you're pregnant hormones such as relaxing. And that is more likely to make your breast saggy than breastfeeding. Okay? So again, I'm sorry that I don't have 100% of an answer for you. It's a little bit of a fun guessing game, right? It'll just be a fun surprise to see what your breasts do after you are done breastfeeding. Well, that's enough about that. Let's go on to the next one. This next question is when do boobs stop hurting after a miscarriage? I probably shouldn't have left this question for last because this is kind of a little bit of a sad topic. But this is the last one and here we are. So we are going to finish on this question. So first, if you have had a current miscarriage, then first of all, I'm very sorry. That is something that's very hard to go through. I have never personally dealt with it, but I've worked with a lot of clients who have I've had a lot of loved ones who have gone through that. And I know how completely difficult that can be. And it can be extra hard when you start lactating after having a miscarriage because you start producing breast milk not long after you enter into your second trimester. So even with an earlier miscarriage, sometimes you can already be producing breast milk. Now, I do have an entire podcast episode that is dedicated to lactation after loss. I actually did have on a guest who went through that because like I said, I haven't dealt with that personally, so I can't speak from experience. But I did have a guest come on who did speak about her experience with lactation after the miscarriage of her baby. So she had a lot of really good tips. That's kind of one of my earlier podcasts that you have to scroll back a little ways. Or you can always go to Brisbanes.com and just search for lactation after loss and it will pull up the podcast number so that will go a little bit deeper. But just know that after you are done, after you're wanting to be done with producing breast milk, it takes some time for things to completely turn off, okay? So let's say whether you've had a miscarriage or whether you're just wanting to lean, it takes days, weeks, maybe even months for you to completely stop producing milk. And it can even take up to a year for that complete process to stop in your breasts. So let me just start by saying that if your breasts are hurting after a miscarriage, you're going to want to take care of them. It may involve some ice, it may involve some pumping or hand expression to slowly decrease the amount of milk. It definitely does not include binding up your breast. We know that that can actually do more harm than good. But as always, I really would recommend for you to work with an IBC to help you slowly come down because we don't want your rest to be full and uncomfortable. And that shouldn't be a hurt that you are dealing with because just dealing with a miscarriage can be hard enough. We probably shouldn't have ended on that sad note, but hopefully this Q and A has been helpful for you. I think it would be so fun to do another Q and A in the future, so let's do it. Especially if you love this podcast episode, I'd love to hear from you. Or if you have a recommendation for a topic that you would love to hear more about in the future, you can always reach out to me and come back next Tuesday. I always have a fresh, hot new episode that drops every Tuesday. And of course I'm going to leave you with you are strong, you are smart, you are beautiful, your good friend to all. Have a good week.