My breasts have always been the same size as each other...until I started nursing. Early on, I was very diligent about feeding from both sides and alternating which side I started with. However, my left side seemed to get engorged more frequently and produce a greater amount of milk (roughly 4 to 1 when I pump). Unfortunately, the problem seems to build on itself because now my daughter frequently refuses to feed on my right side (I assume b/c the milk does not flow as freely), thereby causing the difference between the two sides to get bigger and I am afraid the milk supply in my right side will dry up.
I work full time so I pump 3x/day at work and usually spend about 2x as much time pumping my right side as I do my left side, hoping to stimulate further milk production. But when I am at home it is not usually possible to pump my right side after feeding my daughter b/c I have to take care of her.
Does anyone have suggestions to help? Also, when I do stop breastfeeding, will my breasts return to their original symmetry?
Yep, I have a similar problem. I always start my girl on the "hard" or lesser side and then finish her off, if need be, on the more plentiful side.
I'm happy to learn I'm not the only one wiht this problem! You've already gotten some great responses, and I bet you are as glad as me to learn the normal breast size returns.
A little tip: I've found that in the meantime, wearing shirts with a distracting pattern helps to hide the breast size difference. :-)
I have successfully breastfed 2 daughters from only one breast (their preference) and while breastfeeding the one side grows to about twice the size of the other side! They DO return to equal sizes after the baby weans (in my case, my daughter nursed 3.5 years and mine turned out just fine!)
Don't worry about the other side drying up- I used to try to pump the "neglected" side, but eventually gave up and it did dry up, but the other breast was enough.
:)
M.
I recommend using a pump that can pump from both sides simultaneously, such as a Medela Pump n Style. Pumping in this way stimulates milk production more than pumping one side at a time does...
http://www.medelabreastfeedingus.com/products/breast-pump...
http://www.medelabreastfeedingus.com/products/breast-pump...
I also suggest feeding your daughter on the less-favored side first. Babies often prefer the side which has more milk ducts, because the milk flows faster from that side. When she is the most hungry she might be more likely to be willing to work harder for her meal.
http://www.kellymom.com/bf/concerns/mom/lopsided.html
http://www.llli.org/NB/NBNovDec96p164.html
Best wishes,
J.
I understand exactly what you are going through! My right side takes me twice as long to pump the same amount from my left side - if I can get as much! It seems like I have more ducts pumping out the milk on my left, and my right only has one/maybe two? I am going to keep trying for now - my boy is 3months. Using the let down feature on my pump twice, seems to help me alittle. I had a little trouble in the beginning with the right breast becoming lumpy, and blocked ducts, but hopefully that is all behind me - it was sooo painful.
Good luck.
I had exactly the same thing. Now that my son has stopped nursing, they're going back to the same size. Not quite there yet, but getting there. At one point they were almost an entire cup size different, but now it's only a slight difference. I generally fed him on the right side first, then finished up on the left side (the side he preferred).
I, too, have one side that produces more than the other. As other moms have said, it is not a problem for baby's milk. However, it is a little funny for me to have different sized breasts! I get my DD to nurse on the slower side when she is sleepy and wants to nurse for a while. This helps to keep milk production up. But when she is up and hungry, forget it, she knows where the most milk is!
But no worries, we've been nursing for 18 months and milk production has never been an issue.
I had the same experience with all three of my kids...they all iked the left better than the right. So poor lefty was smaller...after nursing they went back to being the same
G.:
this is normal.
you should regain your origional symmetry,
P., RLC, IBCLC
Breastfeeding and Parenting Solutions
Hi G. - Everything you wrote sounds like something I could have written about myself, except that I have had 3 kids (ages 6, 4, and 18 mos.). Here's the rest of my story ...
I went for my first mammogram in January 2009, since I had turned 40 in 2008 but was now done breastfeeding (they can't do a mammogram while you're nursing). The mammogram resulted in my being sent to an oncologist and having a biopsy followed by a second biopsy to confirm that I had a very early stage (stage zero, actually) of breast cancer called DCIS, which stands for ductal carcinoma in situ - basically, cancer in the milk ducts (Google it if you want to know more). In May I had a double mastectomy and am currently going through the phases of reconstructive surgery.
It turned out that my right breast had a ton of DCIS, while the left breast had only a trace amount. While the doctors say that they can't confirm or rule it out, they say that it is very possible (based on studies on this topic) that the DCIS in my right breast, blocking the milk ducts, could have been the cause for the lack of symmetry in milk production.
As I gradually learned all of this from various doctors in the course of collecting second and third opinions prior to surgery, it kind of made me angry that, during all of the years that I was having problems nursing, no doctor or lactation consultant ever mentioned DCIS as a possibility, even though it was well-known in the medical and lactation fields to interfere with milk production and cause lack of symmetry in output and breast size while nursing. Had anyone ever even mentioned it as a remote possibility, I would have gone for my first mammogram earlier than age 40. Of course, the fact is that the doctors couldn't have done anything to stop me from getting DCIS, but at least I could have understood all that time that it wasn't anything that I was doing or not doing that was causing the breastfeeding issues and imbalance in milk production.
Hopefully DCIS isn't relevant to your situation, but I wanted to mention it so that, like me, you wouldn't later say, "Why didn't anybody ever mention this?!!"
L.
Wow- I could have been reading my story there! Mine are opposite (Left produced less)...My little one is almost 9 months but I also have a 2 year old. I nursed my 2 year old as well and when I quit, my breasts quickly returned to close to the same size (though a little less "perky" as they had been before any pregnancies or nursing). With baby number 2, we were OK early on but as he got older he began to prefer the "Big Bertha" one as well. My suggestion is to continue pumping both at work (I do 3x a day as well) and if you can get your little girl to get drowsy after being on the one she prefers, flip her to the other side and do the one she doesn't like as much. It usually works for me in the evening. In the morning (we are still nursing 6am and 715 pm plus the pumpings during the week...weekend all nursing) I usually just let him eat on the side he prefers. As long as your "little" one is still getting stimulated 3-4 times a day you will likely still continue to get milk but it will always be low. As an example, my first pump of the day at 945 or 10am, I usually get 6-8 oz from the big one and 2-4 from the little...depends on the day. At night, I get very little to none from the little one if I pump (like when I stay late at work). I think it has something to do with having less milk ducts in the littler one or smaller ones -- so the milk comes out less at a time, produces less, and flow is slower -- at least in my case. I have also found that sometimes manual expression gets me more with that breast than my pump...though I have NO idea why.
Good luck and congrats on nursing!
