Although your breasts will likely grow larger before and during your breastfeeding journey, breast size is irrelevant when it comes to how much milk you produce. A mom with small breasts might have just as much milk supply as a mom with large breasts.
The short answer is that breast size does not affect breastfeeding. New moms face a variety of questions as they begin breastfeeding. For women with small breasts, a common question is whether they'll be able to breastfeed. The answer is that breast size shouldn't affect your ability to breastfeed.
No. Your breast size doesn't affect how much milk you produce. The size of your breasts mostly depends on how much fatty tissue they contain. But fatty tissue doesn't have anything to do with how your breasts make milk.
Studies show some women have as few as 3 milk lobules/ducts and others as many as 15. As a result the amount of milk that can fit in a woman's breasts varies - anywhere from 2.5oz to 5oz combined is average but some women can store as much as 10 oz in one breast (this is very unusual).
If you are pumping before your milk comes in, you may be getting little to no milk. This can be for two reasons: Colostrum is very concentrated and your baby doesn't need much of it, so your breasts don't produce very much. Colostrum is very thick and seems to be more difficult to pump.
Breast storage capacity varies from person to person. It is not related to breast size because storage capacity is created by glandular tissue not fatty tissue. However, it may be one factor that explains the differences in feeding frequency between one breastfeeding pair and another.
Pumping more often can help stimulate breasts to produce more milk. Moms can try pumping both breasts for 15 minutes every two hours for 48-72 hours. Then moms can return to their normal pumping routine. Pumping for longer than 30 minutes may not be beneficial.
However, if you are following the schedule and no milk is coming, keep going. This is an essential step in signaling to your body to create more milk. While some breastfeeding parents see a difference in just a day or two, you may find it takes several days or a week to see a significant increase in breast milk supply.
The most common cause of low milk production is that your breasts are not being emptied or stimulated enough through breastfeeding or pumping. If you're using a breast pump, you may not be pumping frequently enough or your pump flanges may not be a good fit for your breasts.
Low estrogen levels can decrease the amount of fat and tissue in your breasts, leaving them smaller and less full than they used to be. Additionally, mammary gland tissue typically shrinks during menopause, which also may leave your breasts looking different.
Breasts that appear smaller can be caused by genetics, rapid weight loss, hormones, medical conditions, malnutrition, post pregnancy or a lack of breast tissue development.
Your baby helps you make milk by suckling and removing milk from your breast. The more milk your baby drinks, the more milk your body will make. Frequent breastfeeding or milk removal (8-12 times or more every 24 hours), especially in the first few days and weeks of your baby's life, helps you make a good milk supply.
The mom with smaller breasts will often find that the laid-back nursing position helps the baby get in close to her breast.
Conclusions: These findings suggest that differences in the milk output from the right and left breasts are common, and that milk output is often greater from the right breast.
Some medications, including over-the-counter and herbal preparations such as cold/flu tablets, may reduce your milk supply. Rarely, there may be reduced or no milk production because of a medical condition. This occurs in less than five per cent of mothers.
Ultimately, if your baby has reached its birth weight and you're pumping enough milk during the day, it's okay to sleep eight hours without pumping at night. Keep in mind there is an adjustment period for your body as it begins to acclimate to the decrease in overnight milk removal.
It can take some babies anywhere from a few hours up to 48 hours to start breastfeeding. What's really important to remember is that the first hour is often known as the “Golden hour!” This is because the first hour after birth has been shown to be important in initiating your milk supply for now and the future.
If you're pumping for a freezer stash or to store milk for a future separation from your baby, try pumping shortly after you finish nursing – maybe 15 to 30 minutes. That way, your body will have an hour and a half or so to replenish breast milk for your next nursing session. More on combining pumping and nursing here.
"Something I recommend to moms is the 5-5-5 rule," Pawlowski says. "Try and use milk within five hours at room temperature, five days if in the refrigerator, and five months if in the freezer."
If the breasts do not get emptied completely or often enough, the body begins to produce less milk. Some mothers say the milk never stops flowing while they pump. Typically, you should not pump longer than 30 minutes, even if the milk is still flowing.
Breast milk production is all about supply and demand, and using a pump regularly before 4-6 weeks can cause your body to go into oversupply mode.
From a single breast, the average volume an infant drinks is 75 ml (range: 30 –135 ml) 1 • It is normal for one breast to produce more milk than the other 1 Infants feed to appetite and stop feeding when they have had enough or want to change to the other breast.
The “magic number.” This refers to the number of times each day a mother's breasts need to be well drained of milk to keep her milk production stable. Due to differences in breast storage capacity, some mothers' “magic number” may be as few as 4-5 or as many as 9-10.
How much milk should you save. As a working parent, a good goal for your milk stash is 3-5 days (or 36 to 80 ounces) of milk in the freezer before starting back to work, although the amount ultimately depends on how long you'll be away from your little one each day.