low milk supply - even sheep have this problem!!
25 March 2010
I regularly see mothers who don't have enough milk even though they have done all the standard things (feeding on demand, eating, drinking and resting as much as possible) to try and improve milk production. These mothers will usually feel a complete failure when they resort to giving formula milk to help their baby settle and gain weight. Then, to make matters worse they are often told that their milk supply is bad because they've given formula rather than everyone recognising that these poor mothers have only given the formula milk because their supply was already bad.
I explain to these mothers that a low milk supply can affect animals as well as humans and that nature doesn't always get it right. This was perfectly illustrated in the recent BBC programme 'Lambing Live' when the farmer explained to the viewers about ' wet adoption '. If the mother does not have enough milk to feed her newborn lamb they take the lamb and give it to another ewe, smothering the lamb in the amniotic fluid from its adoptive mother to fool her into thinking it's her own lamb. The ewe then feeds this lamb as well as her own.
Bearing in mind that sheep have not made a conscious decision as to whether they want to breast or bottle feed their baby it does make it pretty clear that resorting to ' wet-nursing ' is done through necessity rather than choice.
So, if a mother finds that she doesn't have enough milk to feed one baby while her friend is happily breastfeeding twins, she should feel comforted by the fact her friend is lucky to have so much milk and she is unlucky - it is not a question of who is the best mother or who is trying the hardest.