Breast milk is nature’s perfect food for babies. Breast milk contains special substances that give the growing baby immunity to infection and disease. Breastfeeding bonds a mother to her baby, stimulates important hormonal activities in her body, helps her lose weight after pregnancy and protects her against future breast cancer and osteoporosis.
Most modern-day diets will not provide adequate nutrition for nursing mothers. You will need to add special foods to your diet.
Human milk will be lacking in certain fat-soluble vitamins if the mother’s diet is poor. Fat-soluble vitamins that are only found in healthy fats. The standard American diet promotes eating a diet low fat. As a result, it can be challenging to absorb these vitamins at the quantity needed to feed two humans.
Human milk will also lacking in good fats in general if these are not present in adequate amounts in the mother’s diet. "Mother’s milk contains long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (LCP) that the baby needs for the development of its nervous system. These special fats accumulate in the brain and retina." If they are absent in the baby's diet, the child has the potential to develop learning disabilities and poor eyesight.
Fun Fact: The mother will throw off anti-immune factors in her breast milk for the first few weeks. These anti-immune factor act as memories from the mom's immune system that will help the baby's immune system develop. The anti-immune factors cannot be duplicated by any formula.
If possible try to arrange to have good help for the first four weeks after the baby is born so that you will have adequate rest. This way you can concentrate on getting optimal nourishment and plenty of sleep.
Not every woman can successfully breastfeed, but to increase breast milk supply:
Consume more fermented foods and beverages.
Porridges of soaked grains(oats), in small amounts. Keep in mind that grains can be pro-inflammatory and should only be used for short periods of time.
Your hormones could be out of balance. After birth, your hormones are all over the place and this imbalance can disrupt a hormone called prolactin from letting your milk supply flow. Seek help from a specialist that is trained in balancing hormones naturally. Or see us!
If, in spite of these measures, your milk supply dries up, don’t feel guilty. You have done the best you could and your baby can still grow up healthy, strong and smart on a homemade, whole foods baby formula. Stay tuned for future posts in this area!
Above all, let’s keep in mind the ultimate goal. The goal is healthy children—not breastfeeding for the sake of breastfeeding and not convenience feeding with store-bought foods—but healthy children!