Posted on December 7th, 2008 by admin

Your baby is probably largely responsible for sending the cue to your body for how much milk he wants. His sucking and draining of the breast is the signal to your house that the faucet has been turned on and to keep it comin’. The water pressure is the air-tight seal he forms with his mouth around your areola. Once the faucet is on and the water pressure is correct, your body will release hormone number one, prolactin.

This hormone sends a signal to the milk-producing cells that their break is over. It’s time for them to punch the time clock and get to work making milk. Then a second hormone, oxytocin, is released. This hormone tells the milk-producing cells to send the milk stored through the milk ducts. As the baby sucks, the milk travels along the milk ducts to milk sinuses under the areola tissue. When the baby compresses your breast tissue and the sinuses that lie underneath, the milk is ejected into your baby’s mouth through the openings in your nipple. Isn’t that cool?

This is a harmonious process when the baby is doing his job correctly. But if, say, your baby isn’t latched on well and isn’t compressing the milk sinuses properly, the milk-producing cells will get backed up and, just as though you’d turned off the faucet, the whole system shuts down. The milk-producing cells will think their job is done because the “faucet” is off—and they’ll punch off the clock. The alveoli also learn from each feeding. If they’re left with a lot of extra milk, they will not donate it to charity. They will think, “Oh dear. We made too much. Better not do that again.”

Tags: baby milk, breastfeeding