Topic

Difficulties in Breastfeeding and Expressing

When the mother says that she has little milk, is having difficulty breastfeeding, or the baby is not gaining weight, it is necessary to check what is happening:

  • Is the baby latching well?
  • Is the baby drinking water, tea, or other types of milk besides breast milk?
  • Is the baby breastfed whenever he wants?
  • Can the baby empty the breast?
  • Is mother going through any difficulty?
  • Does the partner encourage and support the woman to breastfeed?
  • Are other family members, friends, and neighbors helping the mother at this stage?

Difficulties may appear, especially when it is the first child, and the mother does not have much experience or if the mother had problems breastfeeding her other children. These women will need more support from the family and from you, the leader.

There is no such thing as weak breast milk. When the mother becomes more tired or is going through a problem, there may be a small decrease in milk production. Tell her to rest and put the baby down more often to breastfeed, because the more the baby breastfeeds, the more milk the mother produces.

Parents can tell if their baby is getting enough milk when they pee several times a day and if they are gaining weight properly. To assess the baby's weight gain, it is important to take him to a health service appointment.

In the first months of exclusive breastfeeding, it is normal for the baby to be chubby. Around four or five months, the tendency is to continue gaining weight more slowly. But the health and love gain that breastfeeding brings keep increasing!

Leader, see how baby monitoring works in your country: The Philippines

The baby's follow-up takes place in hospitals or local health services free of charge, and it is the parents' responsibility to take the baby to the appointment.

In the first year of life, appointments are made monthly. Between 12 and 24 months, there are 4 appointments.

There are free supplements recommended for children:

Multivitamins: 6 months to 5 years of age.

Ferrous sulfate, zinc supplement, and powdered micronutrients: at 6 months of age, which are mixed with food.

 Expressing

Expressing is a method that allows a breastfeeding woman to extract milk from the breast without pain. It is important to guide mothers on how to express milk because there may be situations where they need to express the milk, such as if they go back to work.

Before expressing, to keep breast milk quality, some care is needed:

  • wash your hands well and wipe them with a clean cloth;
  • choose a clean and boiled in a water glass container;
  • stay in a comfortable position and, if possible, in a calm environment.

To express breast milk:

  • Make circular massages with the fingertips at the base of the breast towards the nipple.
  • Place your thumb on the breast, above the areola, and the other fingers on the underside of the breast, forming a cup with your hand.
  • Make the expressing movement, gently squeezing the breast, pulling it back and forth rhythmically.
  • Discard the first jets of milk, as they carry microbes that are closest to the nipple. These microbes can spoil stored milk, but they do not harm the health of a baby who is breastfed directly at the breast.
  • Repeat the expressing movement rhythmically, rotating your hand around the areola to empty all the breast milk.
  • Alternate breasts when the milk output is reduced or every five minutes, repeating the massage and expressing until the desired amount of milk is reached.

There is no scientific proof that rubbing products or breast milk itself help in cases of sore nipples.

When returning home, the mother should offer the breast to the baby. Then she can express the milk to be used the next day. The amount and appearance of milk vary from one expressing to another.

How to store breast milk and warm it up for baby:

  • Immediately after expressing, the milk must be stored in the refrigerator (fridge) for up to 12 hours or in the freezer for up to 15 days and must be placed on one of the shelves, never on the refrigerator (fridge) door.
  • When offering milk to the baby, first use the milk that has been expressed first. To heat, place the glass container with the milk inside a pan with warm water without boiling (bain-marie) and without being on the fire.
  • To use frozen milk, it must be unfrozen inside the refrigerator (fridge) and then heated according to the explanation above. Before offering milk to the child, it must be gently shaken.

This milk should be offered to the baby with a spoon or directly in the cup.

When the mother is at home, it is necessary to breastfeed the baby more often. Thus, it stimulates the production of more milk and increases the period of breastfeeding.

The person who takes care of the baby needs to offer this milk with a spoon or in a cup, because the nipple of the bottle makes the baby used to it, and later, he will no longer want to latch on the mother's breast.

Leader, on Life Celebration Day, when nutritional monitoring is done, you can check if the baby's weight and length are adequate. This is a sign that the baby is getting enough milk to grow.

When the baby doesn't gain weight, talk to the mother to find out what's going on. It may be that he is not breastfeeding, that the mother is tired, or is not eating properly. If the mother has already returned to work, also talk to the person who takes care of the baby.

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