- my iParenting
- quick clicks
- babies today articles
- babies today q&a
- toddlers today articles
- toddlers today q&a
- breastfeed.com articles
- breastfeed.com q&a
- message boards
- research baby names
- prepare a birth plan
- content channels
- ip channel rss feeds
- read birth stories
- read parenting stories
- recommended books
- e-newsletters
- safety recalls
- ip diaries
- ip store
- mom of the month
- dad of the month
- editor's letter
- letters to the editor
 |
- e-newsletters
- Sign up to receive our free weekly e-newsletters
- award-winning products
The iParenting Media Awards program helps parents find the best products for their families.
Breastmilk Leakage:
Progress on the Problem By Laurie Dove
When Wanda Yates, a mother of four from Philadelphia, Penn., attended her high school reunion, she wanted to make an impression. Just not with a wet shirt. Yates, who had chosen to breastfeed her youngest child, posed for a class picture, one that captured a failed attempt to keep her swollen breasts from leaking breastmilk.
"I had a satin shirt and the camera captured my leaky stain in 'that' spot on film for eternity," Yates recalls. "I was used to being extra careful in public. I used breast pads, lots of them, usually wore patterned shirts and dresses to camouflage the milk until I could get back home and change."
Breastmilk leakage typically begins after childbirth, when a woman's body begins producing milk. It affects mothers who choose to breastfeed as well as those who choose not to breastfeed and leak while waiting for milk production to cease. According to Dr. Jon Jantz, a pediatrician at Wichita Clinic-Bethel in Newton, Kan., the term breastmilk leakage most often refers to the uncontrollable release of breastmilk from the nipple in response to a reflex known as "let down." For many years health care providers assured mothers that breastmilk leakage would stop within several weeks after giving birth. Now, most physicians and lactation consultants say otherwise. Jantz often tells new breastfeeding mothers it isn't unusual to experience this kind of let down and leakage for several months.
"I leaked consistently for about the first three months," says Libby Baker, a 26-year-old nursing mother from Roanake, Va. "But I knew that the benefits of breastfeeding far outweighed the inconvenience of a wet shirt." Despite believing that breastfeeding was the right choice for her baby, Baker still battled breastmilk leakage. "At one of my son's first doctor visits, I took a cab into the clinic and by the time the appointment was over, I noticed I had leaked all down my front," Baker says. "It was the first time I'd experienced this. Fortunately, it was raining and I stood in the rain for a few minutes before hailing a cab. No one was the wiser."
