The Magic Number and Low Milk Supply
There is a fantastic Green and White Image that floats around social media by a company selling lactation supplements that talks about the Magic Number. It’s a concept adapted from Nancy Mohrbacher’s Breastfeeding Made Simple to help parents who were exclusively breastfeeding and had returned to work understand how to manage their milk supply. The idea was actually to help them understand how the frequency of removals in 24-hours could inadvertently trigger lowered milk production. The parent stretches out pumping during the day which works for a time, then baby starts stretching out nursing at night, and before long, milk supply has dropped. Storage capacity is defined as the amount of milk the breast can hold overall, with the idea that larger storage capacity means the need to remove milk less frequently without compromising milk supply. The smaller the storage capacity, the more vulnerable the milk supply to these decreased milk removals.
So, inevitably, a parent struggling with their milk supply and desperately searching for answers wants to know why they are pumping 8-12 times around the clock even with a larger storage capacity than this suggests, and its not helping. Why is their baby nursing all the time, and yet, the problem persists?
THIS IS BECAUSE THIS DOESN’T APPLY TO TRUE LOW SUPPLY SITUATIONS 👏 👏 👏 !!!
True low supply occurs when milk removal at appropriate intervals fails to produce a full milk supply. The reasons vary wildly for true low milk supply, but it’s unrelated to the frequency of milk removal.
Why?
Because you can’t out nurse or pump a thyroid that is not operating functionally.
Because you can’t nurse often enough to compensate for poor oral function.
Because you can’t out pump that terribly fitting flange with that crappy breast pump insurance tossed your way.
Because frequent milk removal won’t fix a hormonal imbalance.
So, is the idea of the magic number a bad idea?
Actually, no it’s not. For breastfeeding parents with normal milk supplies, with effective nursing babies, and for whom their pump is working well, this concept helps them understand how to manage breastfeeding for themselves. It’s a great tool to easily guide these parents to successfully meeting their goals. For parents with small storage capacities without other issues, it may be possible to remove milk frequently enough to make it work.
I know it’s hard to accept that this may not work for you when this graphic represents hope that you might be able to control the uncontrollable reality of true low milk supply. I get it, I’ve been right where you are. It’s disheartening and frustrating to know this is outside of your control, and it’s not something you can address simply.
So, what if I tried following these numbers and it didn’t work?
Milk removal intervals and frequency are only part of milk supply management. If you are struggling with milk supply, we need to look at the whole picture, not just this one factor in milk supply management.
When you are struggling with milk production, we need to look at the whole picture, and it’s not typically just one issue. It’s lots of small issues that compound to create a chronic low supply situation. It’s complicated to assess, and easy to miss something.
It’s not something that can be fixed in a one-hour session. It typically is a process of doing an assessment, and then trying different things to see how the milk supply responds. It’s advocating for medical providers to run lab work, and advocating that they take low milk supply seriously. Then, waiting for referrals if the lab work shows underlying issues, and advocating for treatment from medical providers who may have a limited understanding on how issues like insulin resistance, thyroid concerns, and hormonal imbalances impact lactation.
It’s not simple, and the fixes are often imperfect and don’t move as quickly as we would like. But, there is hope for low milk supply with proper support, so stop searching for the answers in a social media graphic and let’s start figuring out what we are actually dealing with.
