For the last couple of months I’ve been struggling with breastfeeding and have now officially been diagnosed with hyperlactation. This basically means that my body, for some reason, thinks it needs to feed multiple babies. While that sounds great, and while I am beyond grateful to be able to feed my baby, it has been frustrating, stressful, and downright painful at times.
I had heard of moms underproducing milk (and I know how stressful that is too, as it took a few days for my milk to come in), but I had never heard of anyone overproducing, so I was confused and disturbed by the changes I was experiencing when my milk did come in. The pain regularly woke me up at night, and the fast flow of milk caused my baby to cough, choke, and cry in frustration because he was hungry but couldn’t drink. I spoke with the wonderful UC Davis lactation consultants multiple times a week to try to figure out what was happening and manage it.
One time when pumping, I produced 250 mLs. Becca told me that was about 4 times what my baby needed at that age. After that, I completely stopped pumping (to prevent further stimulating production), I tried using ice packs, different nursing positions, block feeding, and even hand-expressing before feeds to relieve the pressure, but nothing helped. This also meant I couldn’t let my husband bottle feed (though he was willing and wanted to help shoulder some of the load), so I have been doing 100% of the feedings, and now my baby absolutely refuses to take a bottle.
I was finally referred to a doctor who specializes in lactation. Under her guidance, I have tried multiple medications and supplements which helped to reduce my production to an extent, but I am still basically producing enough for twins. I am in constant fear that the fast flow will cause my baby to develop an aversion to nursing, so fingers crossed this next medication helps regulate my production.
All that said, there is a silver lining to all this pain, frustration and stress. Every time my baby feeds, I collect the milk from the side he isn’t nursing on (because apparently my body thinks there’s a baby on that side too), and I have now saved almost 20 liters (over 5 gallons) of milk in our freezer. I jumped through the necessary hoops and have been approved as an official milk donor for the UC Health Milk Bank. I am happy to say I just donated 13.5 liters of this milk so that it can help other babies in need at UC hospitals across the state.
I hope that by sharing this, I can raise some awareness about hyperlactation and how difficult overproducing milk can be. I also hope to encourage anyone who may be overproducing to consider donating to your local milk bank or sharing with other local moms/babies in need. I am so grateful for the support I have been receiving from the UC Davis lactation consultants and the UC Davis breastfeeding support group, and encourage other moms to reach out to them early and often with any issues you may have.
– Testimonial submitted by Jamie Nakatani
