ATX Breastfeeding Connection

The longer a woman's lifetime duration of breastfeeds, the more she reduces her risk for ovarian cancer. How does this work? That’s the focus of this 2024 systematic review:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11060284/pdf/ms9-86-2805.pdf

OK: science post!

It can be hard to explain this simply, but basically there is an ingredient in breastmilk called FIL. (Feedback Inhibitor of Lactation. Inhibitor means it inhibits, stops or discourages lactation)

As the breast fills up with milk, FIL gets bossy AF and tells the milk production to slow down.
So the fuller your b**b, the SLOWER milk is being made.

ALSO, fat kind of clings to your milk ducts, so when your breast feels as flat as a pancake after 2 hours of cluster feeding and your baby is pulling on and off like they haven't eaten for weeks they are actually pulling out that really high fat milk. So it is fine and beneficial even if they aren't getting really high volumes of it.

THEN because the breast is really soft and FIL isn't really hanging around at this point, the breast speeds up production so you have lots more milk later.

Clever isn't it?

One of my favorite breastfeeding facts that I love to share from time to time! Mothers have a biological drive to kiss their babies as a way to protect their new immune system.🦠🦠🦠

When you kiss💋your baby, you are sampling the pathogens on her skin, which are then transferred to your lymphatic system, where you will produce antibodies to those pathogens. Those antibodies will pass through your breast milk to your baby and boost her immune system.

Reference: Lauren Sompayrac, author of How The Immune System Works, 2011. Wiley-Blackall
Available online:https://books.google.com.au/books?id=Vb-SCgAAQBAJ…

Last Saturday we shared our Ice Machine analogy for supply and demand. This weeks analogy is when you let your breasts not be emptied as often you create a traffic jam inside as things back up which leads to engorgement/clogs and eventually mastitis.

To divert this traffic we need to let some of these cars out aka breastmilk. Shorten the gaps you go between nursing and pumping to every 2-3 hours if you are struggling with traffic jams.