By Sabrina Trueblood, CLC
This may be your first (but certainly not your last) time reading my words, so let me introduce myself! I’m Sabrina Trueblood, a Certified Lactation Counselor and Lactation Program Manager. At Brood, we’re all about supporting parents and creating environments where everyone feels equipped and empowered—whether it’s first-time nursing parents learning the ropes or organizations building truly lactation-friendly spaces.
To kick things off, I want to share some common lactation challenges many parents face and offer insights into identifying and addressing them. It’s important to note that the tips I’ll be sharing apply to full-term babies without known health concerns. If your baby was born preterm or has health challenges, these insights may not fully reflect your experience. Every baby, body, and lactation journey is beautifully unique, so please reach out to your healthcare provider for personalized support.
I always remind my clients that while feeding from your body may feel instinctive, it doesn’t always come naturally! Challenges are common, and more often than not, a lack of knowledge or barriers to accessible education form the foundation of many of the struggles parents face on their lactation journeys. Let’s dive into three common challenges and how we can work together to navigate them.
1. Perceived Low Milk Supply
Unfortunately, as birthing parents, we tend to think many problems arise due to our own mistakes/faults – if something is amiss, we automatically think that we are the culprit! I see this all the time with my clients. Perceived low milk supply is when a birthing/nursing parent (without proof) believes that they lack adequate milk supply to nourish their child(ren). These parents believe that the same body that created an entire human is suddenly unable to sustain said human. While that absolutely can be the case for a selection of people, that is normally a much smaller group compared to the majority of lactating parents! Some nursing parents may experience a true supply issue if they have encountered hurdles such as thyroid complications, hormonal issues such as PCOS, certain breast augmentations or gender-affirming surgeries, and retained placentas, for example. On the contrary, a majority have an adequate supply and have the perfect amount of milk for their child to flourish.
A few ways you can tell if your child is getting enough milk is:
- If they are eating often (at least 8 – 12 times) throughout the day and night (AKA in 24 hours)
- If they are relaxed and satisfied after a feeding (loose fingers and no fist clenching)
- If you can see them actively suckling and swallowing during their feed
- If they are steadily gaining weight as they grow older → Weight gain can be tricky so work closely with your paediatrician, however typically babies are back at their birth weight by week two of life. Factors that impact this may be if your delivery was vaginally vs c-section, IV fluid vs no IV fluids etc. Babies can gain anywhere from 5 to 8 oz per week the first few months of life!
In the name of blaming yourself less and feeling more confident in your + your baby’s feeding journey – we want the above metrics to not allow your doubtful thoughts to weigh more than what your baby is telling you!
2. Milk Delay
Another common mistake experienced by nursing parents is the myth that your milk will not be available for the baby on day 1. Let me give you some nerdy background for the myth that milk doesn’t show up until day 4 – 5 postpartum → while also explaining why milk delay is untrue!
Your body begins to produce colostrum, babies’ first food full of every nutrient needed, in the second trimester of pregnancy. Colostrum is the nutrient-rich, antibody-packed first milk produced by the mother after birth, providing essential immune support and nourishment for a newborn. After you deliver your baby (as well as your placenta), your body then begins a process that transitions from the thicker colostrum to thinner more mature milk. This mature milk is the milk that remains throughout the lactation journey, while the colostrum makes its exit by week 2 after delivery.
If a lactating parent believes that milk doesn’t arrive until a week postpartum, what can happen is unnecessary supplementation of infant formula to the baby while they wait for their milk to arrive. This can lead to extreme discomfort by not expressing the milk the nursing parent already has, while they wait for the mature milk to complete its transition. This can also lead to a decrease in milk supply as milk production is truly supply and demand. The more you move milk, the more signals you send to your body to let it know you need more milk! Diminished milk movement tells your body to reduce the amount of milk it produces, which usually leads to an unplanned drop in milk supply. Acceptance of this myth can turn a perceived low milk supply into an actual low milk supply.
3. Missing Cues
A final error we want to cover is unintentionally missing a hunger cue provided by your baby. Hunger cues are ways our babies let us know they wish to eat – learning these cues can be extremely helpful for you and your baby. The quicker you learn the cues, the quicker you can feed your baby and avoid them crying from hunger! Feeding cues range from smacking/licking lips, sucking on fingers/toes, to rooting/searching around your chest (or face!) for milk, trying to position for a nursing session, all the way to thrashing their head back and forth and finally, the most visceral – crying. Peek at our illustration for visual feeding cue support ↓
Knowing the early cues can help reduce the stress of getting used to feeding your new addition to the family!
There are a ton of things to learn on your baby’s feeding and lactation journey. I hope to see you again so I can continue to share my knowledge with you! My goal is to truly S.E.E. you with support, empowerment, and education.
MEET THE AUTHOR
Sabrina Trueblood seamlessly merges over a decade of experience in tech consulting as a Project Manager with her deep-rooted passion as a lactation advocate. A Certified Lactation Counselor, Lactation Program Manager and owner of The Aladun Tree; a Lactation Counseling firm committed to elevating lactation intelligence (or breastfeeding/chestfeeding knowledge) in individuals and organizations, she aims to create an environment where support for lactating parents is a fundamental part of their journey.
