Last night, while Mon and I were talking, the conversation was somehow diverted to my still untreated body pains. I told him that it’s probably due to my sleeping position – lying on the sides – since I breastfeed Ayex from time to time in the middle of the night. I told him that even if I want to sleep on my chest to somehow give my back some comfort, I cannot, because it can cause my milk supply to decrease. Then as we continue to talk about things that happened for the day, I can’t stop thinking, what really are the factors that affect a mother’s milk supply.

From my experience, these are the factors that affect my milk supply (in no particular order):

• Stress or over fatigue.
  This is probably the reason why it’s best to be relaxed when feeding or pumping breast milk. But to a full-time working mom, definitely, we can’t avoid this so call for help when needed!
• Improper latching.
  God is so good to me that He taught Ayex to properly latch since the beginning! I’ve read from so many blogs and forums that this is the main cause why the breast is not making enough milk because it’s not getting enough stimulation. A good latch stimulates the breasts to make more milk.
• Infrequent feeding.
  This is why I envy SAHMs and WAHMs! Having to work at an office away from Ayex means lesser direct feedings, which really affected my breast milk supply. The tight office schedule sometimes gets into the way because meetings are scheduled during my supposedly “nursing” time – when I’m suppose to express milk. I read it somewhere in the Internet that it is critical to following a certain nursing schedule to maintain the breast milk supply. Luckily, there would be times that I’d be able to express milk without worrying about getting late for the next meeting!
• Not fully emptied breasts.
  I read that the breasts follow the law of supply and demand. The more milk the baby demands, our mammary glands will produce more milk. If the breast is not empty then it’s probably to produce less milk. I think this happens to me since there would be times when I get tired pumping the milk using my Avent manual pump even if I feel that there are still a lot of milk inside. The result would be lesser milk.
• Improper sleeping position.
  I read that when you sleep on your chest, you are somehow pressing your breasts and it can decrease your milk supply. I don’t know because I’m afraid to try to sleep on my check plus the fact that I can’t because Ayex feeds from time to time in the middle of the night.
• Unhealthy eating habits.
  I noticed that when I don’t drink too much or if I eat junk food too much, my breast milk supply decreases. They said in some forums that we have to replace the fluid that comes out of our body – in the form of milk. Thus it is necessary that we drink lots of fluid.
• Supplements.
  Even if the malunggay (moringa) tea or capsule that I take has this No approved therapeutic claim note at their packaging, I still believe that these help increase my milk supply plus of course the frequent latching (or pumping for that matter).

How about you, what do think affects your breast milk supply?