The short answer is no. 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.
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.
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.
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.
In most cases, uneven milk production is a result of this natural asymmetry. One breast may have more milk-producing tissue, larger milk ducts, or a more forceful letdown response.
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.
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.
You're not getting let down. If your breasts feel like they're full but you're not able to get the milk flowing out when you pump, it could be that you're not achieving let down.
Your breasts will feel lighter
When your breasts are empty, they will probably feel lighter and no longer uncomfortably full, as they might have at the start of the pumping session.
There's no need to wait between feedings for the breasts to refill—in fact, a long wait between feedings tells the breasts that the baby needs less milk and production slows down.
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.
Your body is always making milk. That means there's no need to wait for the supply to “replenish” between feedings. In fact, waiting a long time between feeding your baby can actually reduce your milk supply. That's because your body does an amazing job of producing the right amount of milk to keep your baby happy.
Relax – most people can breastfeed, no matter the size or shape of their breasts. If you're concerned that your nipples are too big or small, also don't worry. Most new moms can nurse their babies, regardless of nipple size.
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).
Breast size can also impact your fertility
A study published in the journal, The Royal Society Publishing, found that women with larger breasts and smaller waists were more fertile and thus, had a high reproductive potential—thanks to the higher levels of the female reproductive hormone, estradiol, in them.
Your breasts feel softer
This is completely normal and has no effect on your milk supply. Breast fullness may return for a short while if: your baby's feeding routine changes. you or your baby becomes unwell.
Breasts can never be empty until after the baby is fully weaned off breastfeeding. Fact: Babies don't take all of the available milk during nursing. Using ultrasound, science has determined that babies take about 65% of the available milk in the breast during a feeding session.
Your breasts will feel softer and less full as your milk supply adjusts to your baby's needs. This does not mean you have low supply. If your baby nurses for shorter periods of time, such as only 5 minutes on each breast.
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.
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.
While the exact time that prolactin levels peak seems to differ from person to person, it most often occurs somewhere between 11 pm and 7 am. High prolactin levels at these times could lead to higher levels of milk production at these times.
Although estimates suggest that only about five to 10 percent of women are physiologically unable to breastfeed, many more say that they're either not making enough or there's something nutritionally lacking with their milk that keeps the baby from thriving.
For example, a more typical amount of milk for a mom to produce is 570-900 mL/19.27-30.43 oz a day.