Prenatal Class #5 – Breastfeeding and Poop

Our fifth pre-natal class was interesting. We discussed a lot about post-partum events – breastfeeding particularly, along with what to expect in the little kid’s poop-catchers.

It was interesting to hear how the mother’s body seens to sense and know what nutrition the baby is needing. Babies with cold or fevers cause the mother’s milk to change to provide more water and colostrum to help the baby fight off the infection and recover. The constitution of the breast milk will change over time as the baby’s needs change to ensure the right mix of nutrition is delivered. Kind of amazing when you stop to think about it.

So in the initial couple of days we were shocked to hear that the baby may try to feed up to 20 or more times a day. And feedings should last anywhere from 10 minutes to an hour. That’s a lot of nipple-sucking! In these initial days the mother’s breasts are only providing colostrum as their bodies gear up to start producing the richer milk. So of course the big concern amongst the moms was whether it would be painful and how to cope if they’re not producing enough milk or other problems that might occur.

Let’s see, we talked about:

• not enough milk
• too much milk
• blocked milk ducts
• infected milk ducts
• engorged and uncomfortable breasts
• painful latching
• sore and aching nipples

After all that discussion there were a lot of rather grim faces among the women in the class, and I can’t say I blame them at all. It sounds like it’s going to be an “interesting” ordeal for Mom-to-Be – for the first couple of weeks at least.

We then moved on to discuss what we should be expecting in terms of bowel movements and peeing. Interesting to me was that in the first 3 days we should expect 3-4 poops of meconium per day (yum!). Think of thick gooey green-black slime if you don’t have the courage to visit the link for a photo. However the little poop-maker will only pee once a day if all’s well.

After 3 days the poop will change to a green colour as the meconium is expelled and replaced by the milk and colostrum the baby is ingesting. And after the 4th day it should turn to a yellowish yummy pudding as the baby’s now cleared of meconium and now just full of mom’s milk. The frequency of poops will reduce over time as the baby absorbs more and more of the milk rather than passing it through its system.

The last thing we talked about was the types of milk that are produced and when, and how to manage switching breasts for feeding. A new one for me – there are two types of milk produced during a lactation session: foremilk and hindmilk. The foremilk is released initially once feeding starts for the first few minutes, more filled with minerals and liquied. After the first 10 minutes or so, the breast starts to release richer milk with more proteins. The impact of this means that Mom should be feeding the baby from the same breast for the full feeding session, and from that same breast if the baby wants to feed again within an hour of starting. Then Mom can switch sides on the next feeding.

Who knew that these things could be so complicated?