During pregnancy and, particularly during lactation, women are mostly interested in their breasts as sources of food and growth signals for their baby. But, especially among women with small breasts, it is common for women to wonder, “If I had larger breasts, would I produce more milk?”
Breasts, like nipples, come in all different shapes and sizes. Even mothers with large breasts may worry about the best way to get their baby attached to their breasts.
The good news is that regardless of the breast (or nipple) shape or size, most mothers can breastfeed and produce plenty of milk for their babies.
Milk supply is the ability of a mother’s breasts to produce sufficient quantities of human milk for the baby. Low milk supply is one of the major reasons why women are discouraged from breastfeeding and stopping it early, which has potentially detrimental effects for both the mother and the baby.
Human milk is a unique fluid containing nutrients and biologically active ingredients, such as hormones and stem cells, essential for the baby’s growth and development. At the same time, human milk delivers microbial protection and the immunity that the mother’s body has acquired during her life.
A number of factors associated with low milk supply have been identified, such as nipple pain, ineffective nursing hormonal disorders, breast surgery, certain medications, and maternal obesity. Yet, no effective remedies exist because the actual causes of low milk supply at the molecular level inside a breast’s epithelial tissue are still unknown.
And rightly, the notion exists that women with larger breasts can produce more milk and vice versa. But, is this the case? Research into breast size and milk production shows that quantity of milk supply is not dependent on breast size
“The process of breast milk coming out is hormonal. But this could be influenced by a lot of things; the woman’s state of mind, if the woman is under pressure, whether she is relaxed and so on,” said Dr James Oloyede, Director, Nutrition Services and Education, State Primary Healthcare Board, Osun State.
A number of factors associated with low milk supply have been identified such as nipple pain, ineffective nursing, hormonal disorders, breast surgery, certain medications, and maternal obesity.
Hormones – triggered by the baby’s birth as well as by nursing – stimulate the mammary glands in the breasts to secrete milk and push it into milk ducts under the nipple and areola (the dark area around the nipple). When a baby sucks, the milk flows into her mouth.
Amazingly, the big breast can produce a large quantity of milk; the small breast too can produce a large quantity of milk if the baby is put to breast frequently and for a long time. Conversely, the small breast will produce less breast milk if the baby is not put to the breast as frequently as possible.
According to Dr Oloyede, “the more the breast is emptied of the milk, the more the milk is replaced. It is a natural law; it is like fetching water from the well. Once you take out some water, it is replenished.
“If you need it, it keeps on producing until something tells your brain to shut down; that I do not need to breastfeed anymore, so the breast ceases.”
Although breast size is determined by the amount of fat stored in it, Dr Adeyemi Labaaeka, a consultant paediatrician, University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan, stated that breast milk is not let into the breast until delivery.
“It is when the child starts latching on, that is when the milk starts flowing. That stimulation is what is going to trigger processes to ensure the milk comes down early,” he added.
Fatty tissue is what gives the breast its rounded shape and protects the internal structures from injury. The amount of fatty tissue and the size of the breast are not related to the ability to produce milk, so small-breasted women are just as capable of adequate milk production as the more amply endowed.
And rightly, a research that looked into any relationship between breast size and the quantity of milk produced during sucking in 57 women with their first babies who practised exclusive breastfeeding in Nigeria also found no correlation between breast size and the quantity of breast milk production.
The 2004 study’s conclusion in the Nigerian Quarterly Journal of Hospital Medicine was that breast size does not determine the quantity of milk produced in the study subjects.
Both babies and their mothers were apparently well and were not on any drug that could affect fluid balance or breast milk production in this study which involved J K Renner, A O Adewole and M Apena.
The average breast volume was 660.51 cm3 while the average breast milk volume produced was 131.75 mls. The breast volume of 15 mothers was less than 500 cm3 while the volume of five mothers was more than 1000 cm3.
Dr Sylvester Igbedioh, the technical advisor IYCF/Nutrition, Alive & Thrive, a project of FHI 360, stated that breastmilk is a crucial food for children’s health and development during this critical window.
According to him, “It provides all of the vitamins, minerals, enzymes and antibodies that children need to grow and thrive in the first six months of life, and continues to be a pivotal part of their diet up to the age of two or beyond.
“Breastmilk is safe: it is always the right temperature, requires no preparation, and is available even in environments with poor sanitation and unsafe drinking water.
“Breastfeeding also supports healthy brain development, higher educational achievement, and lowers the risk of obesity and other chronic diseases.”
But Dr Igbedioh said that it was important for nursing mothers to also understand feeding cue of their babies. Sucking fingers, fists, rooting, moving and wriggling, crying, rapid eye movements are all signs that a baby is getting ready for a feed.
Facts about breast milk production:
- The breast is made up of fatty and support tissue as well as milk-making glands.
- Women store different amounts of milk in their breasts.
- This is not necessarily related to overall breast size.
- This may affect how often women need to breastfeed their babies.
- A woman with a smaller storage volume may need to feed her baby more often than a woman with a larger storage volume. However, both women will make about the same amount of milk each day.
- It is also common for a mother to have a different amount of storage in one breast compared to the other. She may find her baby spends longer feeding on one side than the other. This is perfectly normal.
- Babies born to the same mother sometimes have very different feeding patterns.
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