Did you know, breastfeeding is based on a supply and demand basis?

I've met many new parents who had no idea this was how breastfeeding works, and it helps to clear up why certain things are important to remember:

• Limit unnecessary pumping while your milk supply is learning your baby's demands! Otherwise your breasts believe they're supplying milk for far more babies or, because a pump can often be less efficient than a nursing baby, they end up producing less than baby needs! This does not mean you can't use a pump at all to remove milk - for example, if separated from your baby and needing to keep your breasts regularly stimulated, or simply to ease discomfort. 

• Feed your baby on demand! Your baby lets your body know what she needs to thrive when placed at the breast when she asks! This might feel like it's pretty constant at first but let your baby and breasts get to know each other!

• If you do, for whatever reason, have to give your baby an alternative feed at some point in those early days, weeks and months, pump while they're being fed, so your body knows that feed needs to be catered for!

• Your breasts are receiving signals from baby, via her saliva, throughout the feed so that even within one feeding session on the sofa, your milk is changing! Letting them come off the breast when they're done means you don't need to be worrying about how many milliletres they have taken, as you might be used to seeing for bottle fed babies. Your baby is likely getting exactly what they need!

• Cluster feeds or your more frequent feeds one day or week versus the one before, may suggest your baby is trying to get an increase in the fuel they need to do some extra growing or skill developing!

• When you leave your breasts until they feel full or miss feeds - for example, when baby starts sleeping longer - the milk in your breasts lets the milk-making cells know that, due to the lack of baby suckling, less milk is needed from now on (or until demand - from baby or pump - communicates something different!)

See! Supply and demand!