Myths about breastfeeding: "With a C-section the rise in breast milk takes longer"

Surely on more than one occasion a mother has told you that she had problems with breastfeeding, or that she gave a bottle directly to her baby, because having given birth by caesarean section the milk took longer to rise.

I still hear it today, although it has been known for some time that it is a myth, and the worst happened to me not long ago, when I heard a nurse who works in a maternity plant say that it was true that many mothers in the plant had problems with breastfeeding because they had given birth by caesarean section.

“What they cut you is the belly, not the milk”

Carlos González sums it up very well when he talks about it. He says that when you have a caesarean section, what you cut is the belly and not the milk, and explains it this way because the beginning of breastfeeding does not depend on the type of delivery, but on the moment when the placenta comes out.

Goodbye placenta, hello milk

As soon as the placenta comes out, be it vaginal delivery, either cesarean delivery, progesterone levels, a hormone that has been maintained at very high levels throughout pregnancy, begin to decline. This drop in progesterone is nothing but the trigger that begins to increase prolactin, which is the hormone responsible for putting the body to produce milk.

The drop in progesterone levels reaches the lowest point around 30-40 hours after delivery, so it is understood that prolactin will gradually increase and, therefore, milk will rise gradually. At first it will be colostrum and then the first milk will arrive.

So that you understand the process a little more, if a piece of placenta is attached to a woman, what is known as placental retention, the decrease in progesterone is lower, the rise in prolactin is also lower and milk production is insufficient. For that (and for other things) the placenta is always checked when it comes out, to see that it is complete and, if something is left inside, you have to take it out.

Sometimes, unfortunately, there are women who spend some time with part of the placenta attached and do not know why their children do not eat enough, do not gain the desired weight, etc., because the cause, more than likely, is that their The body, at the hormonal level, is at a point between pregnancy and the post-pregnancy.

The rise in milk occurs yes or yes

The rise in milk is caused by hormonal changes that occur after childbirth and, as I say, does not depend on the type of birth the woman has had. In fact, and in this I was wrong until recently, it does not depend on the baby's sucking. Mame or not, suck the child in the first hours, the milk will rise.

A sample of this are the mothers who, unfortunately, lose their babies as soon as they are born. There is no baby to suck, but the milk rises equally.

This rise occurs between 30 and 72 hours after delivery, that is, within a period of 1 to 3 days.

"But I had a cesarean and it took me longer to raise the milk"

About the cesarean section and the milk that does not rise is a message that has been given for a long time and a diagnosis that has been used a lot in maternity plants when a woman had problems (you know, without cesarean section, the problem can be any ... with a C-section, any problem related to breastfeeding can be attributed to the C-section).

If a woman knows that with caesarean section there may be more problems with breastfeeding, and if professionals are also convinced of this (this happens less and less, luckily), expectations tend to be low. Something like "you have had luck with breastfeeding, because with caesarean section it is more difficult" or "it is logical that you go wrong, you have given birth by caesarean section." With this attitude, it may happen that as soon as a breastfeeding goes wrong it is seen as difficult to solve and it is easier to give up.

On the other hand, there are many women who do have the rise of milk after the mentioned 72 hours, but not because of a C-section, but for other reasons. Some of these causes are: diabetes, PCOS (polycystic ovarian syndrome), obesity (BMI> 28), who have taken corticosteroids, etc.

But caesarean section is related to more problems in breastfeeding

True, caesarean section is related to more problems in breastfeeding, shorter breastfeeding, etc., but not because of the type of delivery, but why it is done with the baby and the mother once the birth has occurred.

A while ago I explained the reason why many children were badly taken to the chest, being the main cause the time that passed from birth to the first take.

Babies born vaginally are immediately placed in the breast of their mothers, where they can do the first take quietly. Those born by caesarean section are usually separated from their mothers and sent to their room with their father or mother. nursery, while the mother recovers at the resuscitation plant.

That separation can be up to 2 or 3 hours (a few years ago, and in some hospitals, it could be nine hours or more) and, after that time, the baby is tired enough not to want to (or be able to) suck properly.

Not doing well at the beginning is a bad learning for the baby and a “voucher” to possibly have problems with breastfeeding, because that first time it serves as a reference (hence it has been insisted so much on promoting non-separation and contact skin with skin between mother and baby).

In summary, breastfeeding problems associated with caesarean section would be eliminated if, after birth, Babies were treated the same as those born vaginally, placed on the mother's chest and in continuous contact with her until she made the first shot.