Clever marketing or shameless attack against insecurities?

Choosing to solely breast feed is a stressful one especially since you can't see how much your baby is eating. "Am I producing enough?" is a constant question I found myself asking, especially since Charlie would eat so frequently and the doctor was already eyeballing his weight. Supplementing with formula would have felt like personal failure to me so I was really putting the pressure on myself to make enough and help Charlie gain weight. I researched countless things to help my supply and started pumping to help my supply. It was so frustrating to pump for half an hour and get a measly ounce or two! I was convinced I wasn't making enough but Eric convinced me to stay at it, reminding me we had a lactation consultant to contact for help and support. She told me to keep at it, saying it could take anywhere from a few days to a week to see an increase in supply. She even reminded me that since he was only a week or so old, Charlie wasn't eating much each feeding so there would be no point to my body producing 9 ounces each time I pumped; I would build my supply as he grew because that's how it works.

Now they've got these "milk supply tests" in stores; essentially you pump and dump it into this tube and it'll tell you if you're making enough milk. If I had known about these milk supply tests, I'm sure I would have caved and bought it, tested myself and FAILED, even though there's nothing wrong with my supply!! You can't pump once and have an accurate bead on your supply, and it's unfair of a test to tell you you're not doing well enough. I would have failed the test even though my milk has my three month old already twice his birth weight.

So what does that tell you? These are simply there to capitalize on a very real fear! You'll take the test, most likely fail and then buy formula to supplement your "failing supply" whereas if you had just trusted yourself you'd have been fine. There are fewer women than we think who actually cannot make enough milk to feed their babies; roughly 2% can't no matter what they do. Looking at that statistic instead of being convinced by outside pressure that you're not doing well enough, you should surround yourself with constructive support. Find a Facebook group you can use as a sound board, contact your local chapter of LLL (La Leche League) for workshops and support, find a friend or relative who's breastfed and you can pick their brain. Go into this with all the knowledge you can possibly gather and kick breast feeding ass!

Helpful links:
https://www.facebook.com/mothersagainstmilkscreen
http://www.parenting.com/article/the-breastfeeding-police
http://www.llli.org/
http://kellymom.com