Breastmilk and Your Newborn baby
It helps to understand that breasts and babies share a timeline
Your full-term newborn baby might arrive without a suitcase but she has brought her own packed lunch and water bottle!
Special stores of fat are set aside to support your baby in the very first days of life. This extra energy allows the digestive system time to gently adjust to life outside the womb without the need to process large volumes of milk. Instead, colostrum provides highly concentrated nutrition plus key factors to establish digestion and immune systems.
When it comes to fluid, newborns are well-hydrated from the amniotic fluid in the womb. They have been swallowing and excreting this for many months and they are prepared for the first couple of days of low fluid intake. Excess fluid is gradually lost through urination and about 7% loss of body weight can be expected.
As the breasts begin to transition from producing colostrum to creating breastmilk around days 3-7, the baby gradually receives a greater volume of milk. There stomach stretches gradually to accommodate the increased feeds and the bowel is cleared of the dark, sticky meconium to make space for the typical greenish-yellow bowel motions of the first weeks, as digestion begins. Increased wet nappies can be seen, getting wetter and wetter each day in the first week. Five heavy wet single-use nappies per day. Frequent poo is normal in the early weeks and can be quite liquid and is typically yellow in colour, though it can range through the spectrum! Soft, liquid bowel motions should not be confused with diarrhoea.
By one month, milk supply has reached its goal and feed frequency will adapt and change as the baby grows and takes larger feeds less often. Typically breastfed babies feed 8-12 times per 24 hours. During periods of hot weather, rapid growth, brain development or immune system response babies can feed even more than this for a few days as the breasts support the infants changing needs.
The most effective way to establish a healthy milk supply is to address any attachment issues quickly and enable your baby to feed as frequently as they need. Limiting or restricting breastfeeding by routines and schedules will interfere with the natural feedback between breast and baby and can lead to low supply and poor weight gain.
Breastfed babies know what they are doing and so do your breasts. Allowing them to work together to establish their relationship will lead to optimal breastfeeding outcomes.
