What Helped Me Maintain My Milk Supply While Breastfeeding

Our breastfeeding journey was anything but straightforward. These are the things that helped me protect my milk supply through the hardest seasons.

When I first started breastfeeding, I thought milk supply was something you either had or you didn't.

I remember constantly wondering if Bailey was getting enough. Every feed felt like a test I could either pass or fail. If she was unsettled, I worried it was my supply. If she wanted to feed again an hour later, I worried it was my supply. If she gained less weight than expected, I definitely worried it was my supply.

Looking back now, I can see how much time and energy I spent trying to answer a question that didn't always have a simple answer.

Our breastfeeding journey wasn't straightforward. We navigated oral ties, triple feeding, pumping, bottle feeds, supply dips, weight gain concerns and countless moments where I wondered whether I could keep going.

There wasn't one magic solution that suddenly made breastfeeding easy. Instead, there were a handful of things that helped us navigate the hard seasons and continue breastfeeding far longer than I ever thought we would.

These are the things that helped me protect my milk supply throughout our journey.

When Bailey started showing clear signs of digestive issues and losing weight, the alarm bells in my head went off. I knew at this point I had enough milk supply, but I couldn't quite piece together what was happening. After I decided I really didn't want to give her formula and she couldn't lose any more weight, my midwife said I needed support, more than she could offer. This was the first time I'd ever heard the term IBCLC and I kinda didn't know what to expect at all.

To be honest with you, the experience sucked for us. I just felt like when you're still in those early weeks of postpartum, having a stranger come into your home, ask a ton of questions and assess your baby's breastfeeding isn't exactly the most pleasant experience. However, it was what needed to happen. Having someone with experience come in and reassure you that it wasn't all your fault was actually really helpful, but not knowing anything about oral ties made the whole thing quite confronting. I'm sure there are amazing IBCLCs out there that make the experience a whole lot more comfortable. Either way, I wish I had known sooner and gotten support sooner. This time I'm requesting a trained IBCLC in hospital after birth to actually evaluate my second baby straight away.

Looking back, one of the biggest lessons I learnt was that milk supply and milk transfer aren't the same thing. I spent so much time worrying about whether I was producing enough milk, when in reality Bailey wasn't always able to efficiently transfer the milk that was available. Understanding this changed everything.

I feel like as new mums we experience this enormous amount of pressure to get it right, to feel a certain way, to enjoy breastfeeding and the newborn phase because everyone keeps telling us it passes so quickly. But sometimes I wonder if we should spend more time educating women about breastfeeding before they have a baby, not just the beautiful parts but also the reality of what can happen when things don't go to plan. So that when you do run into some of these roadblocks, you don't immediately feel like a failure and you know where to seek support.

If I've learnt anything from the whole oral tie situation, it's that sooner action is usually better than later. I'll write a separate blog post on oral ties because if you find yourself in a situation like we did, I want you to know what to look out for. I wish I had that information.

Once the IBCLC explained everything, she also stressed the importance of protecting my milk supply through regular pumping sessions. While Bailey struggled with transferring milk from the breast, we supplemented with expressed breast milk in a bottle because it was easier for her to get the milk that way. And just like that, our triple feeding journey began.

The additional pumping sessions essentially mimicked a feeding baby and helped create demand, which signalled to my body to keep producing milk. I was actually really happy that I'd spent so much time researching bottles beforehand (I have a separate blog post on that topic), because the bottles we had chosen were exactly the ones the IBCLC recommended. They were considered some of the closest to the breast and helped support breastfeeding. Sometimes getting lost down the research rabbit hole does pay off.

I felt like I went from oversupply to undersupply, back to oversupply and then back to undersupply again within the first three months. Then my period returned at just 10 weeks postpartum, which seemed to affect my supply every single month. I felt so discouraged and frustrated by my body. Just when I felt like things were stabilising, my supply would dip again and I'd have to work on bringing it back up.

Eventually, I accepted that this was probably going to be part of my breastfeeding journey and focused on finding strategies that worked for me. Eating enough and staying hydrated are non-negotiables when it comes to milk supply. I found that having at least one sachet of electrolytes each day really helped. I also drank at least one cup of breastfeeding tea every evening and sometimes two cups a day when I noticed my supply dipping.

Making sure I ate enough protein and snacks throughout the day was another big one. Every time I wasn't eating enough, it seemed to directly affect my supply. I'll share some of the sweet postpartum snacks I'm preparing for my second postpartum in another post.

Lastly, I added moringa powder to my morning routine and again in the evenings when I noticed my supply dropping. Out of everything I tried, this was probably the biggest game changer for me and helped soften some of those monthly dips. Whether that was purely the moringa or a combination of everything I was doing, I can't say for sure, but it became part of my routine and something I continued throughout our breastfeeding journey.

I think a lot of breastfeeding is trial and error. What worked for me might not work for someone else, but I hope some of this is helpful if you're currently navigating something similar.

If there's one thing I learnt from all of this, it's that combination feeding isn't the end.

For a long time, I viewed breastfeeding as all or nothing. I thought needing to supplement meant I was failing or that our breastfeeding journey was coming to an end. Looking back now, I couldn't have been more wrong.

Supplementing with expressed breast milk, and later being open to the idea of formula if we needed it, didn't take away from our breastfeeding relationship. In many ways, it protected it. It took some of the pressure off, allowed Bailey to get the nutrition she needed and gave us the space to work through the challenges we were facing.

Breastfeeding doesn't always look the way we imagine it before becoming mothers. Sometimes it involves pumping. Sometimes it involves bottles. Sometimes it involves seeking support, changing plans and doing things differently than you expected.

If you're currently in the thick of it, worried about your supply, questioning whether you're doing enough or wondering if breastfeeding is worth continuing, I just want you to know that you're not alone.

There wasn't one magic supplement, tea or strategy that protected my milk supply. It was a combination of seeking support, staying consistent, adapting when things changed and giving myself a little more grace along the way.

Our breastfeeding journey looked nothing like I imagined it would.

But somehow, through all the challenges, we made it to over a year of breastfeeding. And for that, I'll always be proud of both of us.

Love,

Charlie