Breastfeeding supply question

I have seen over the years quite a few people on this board with supply issues. I never produced a drop of milk with either kid, no leaking, nothing. My mom and my grandmother had the same thing, so I guesss it's hereditary.

In hindsight, I should have gone to a lc when I had Sarah, but I was a little depressed and couldn't see past the fact that I couldn't feed my child to get help. My mom didn't mention to me that she didn't produce milk until I said to her I didn't understand what was wrong with me. When Andy was born I just kept up with formula since it was what I was comfortable with and didn't want to stress myself out like I did when Sarah was a baby.

Anyhow, I was wondering, do you think it's always been difficult for women to nurse? What did they do before formula? Did more babies not survive since they couldn't eat?

Re: Breastfeeding supply question

I'm sure some woman have always had issues with BF. I would think before formula they just gave babies regular milk. I know my friends mom said she used to give her formula and skim milk.

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I think that women had other women in their villages or clans or whatever feed their babies. Or they hired them, wet nurses were big business in Victorian times!!!

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I think they used wet nurses or used cow's milk. However, I do think that more women have trouble with milk production today because we essentially lost 2 generations of breastfeeding women when formula became widely availlable -- most of us have never been around breastfeeding women and have had to learn from books or LC's -- there's a lot of bad breastfeeding info out there that causes supply issues. Although it sounds like that's not the case with you since it seems to be hereditary.

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I didn't even think of wet nurses or other people in the village helping.

I just feel like when I was pregnant, every magazine article I read make it seem like BFing would be this easy and glorious thing, but I never once read that it may be difficult and you might want to get help. Why is it such a big secret?

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I was reading somewhere that LC's are necessary, because they take the place of our mothers, most who did not BF. Back in the day, mothers taught there daughters how to do it.

It looks so simply done on Blue Lagoon!

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I wonder the same thing and I am desperate to get to the root of my low supply issues but I don't think I'm going to find an answer.

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My grandmother didn't BF my dad or uncle and she would give him I think it was sheep's milk. They were still in Croatia at the time. my grandmother told me once that they needed to change to a different sheep because the mlk wasn't agreeing with my dad .

My other grandma also never BF and I think she just gave them whole milk. My uncle was born during WWII and she was trying to escape so BF wasn't on her mind. She said she did try with my mom but she explained as having bad milk and thin which I dont think she realized that thats what it is like and my mom was just hungry all the time.
My mom had hard time and gave up after 2 weeks with me and never looked back. I did it for 6 weeks and wish I tried harder. I plan on doing things differently this time around.

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I had that thought too, since I had to supplement with formula- what if this had been 1860 on the prairie? I also had to pump to help my supply, I wonder if such things existed then?

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Posted by Seles81

My grandmother didn't BF my dad or uncle and she would give him I think it was sheep's milk. They were still in Croatia at the time. my grandmother told me once that they needed to change to a different sheep because the mlk wasn't agreeing with my dad .