So breast milk production slows when it accumulates and more FIL is present, and it speeds up when the breast is emptier and when less FIL is present.īreast milk may taste different (usually saltier) in one breast if it has a lower supply than the other. Breast milk contains a small whey protein called Feedback Inhibitor of Lactation (FIL) which seems to slow milk synthesis when the breast is full.
Pump between feedings, particularly on the side that is making less.Offer the least desired breast first with every feeding-your baby will usually nurse more from the first breast offered.If you notice a difference in production, try to nurse more often to balance them out. Frequency matters, especially early on in breastfeeding.
But if you are concerned, here's how to encourage your slacker boob to make more milk: Based on this, some mamas feed more on one side, causing one breast to get fuller and produce more milk than the other.Įven though both breasts don't produce the same amount of milk, don't worry: Your body knows how much breast milk your baby needs.Īs long as you nurse on demand, your baby will get enough breast milk to fulfill their nutritional needs. The amount of breast milk produced depends on the amount of breast milk removed, so the breast that is not "used" might not produce as much milk. Most babies show a preference for one side or the other and will nurse more efficiently from one side. Also, the structure of the nipples can vary, making it easier for your baby to latch on to the nipple of one breast than the other.Īnother reason one breast may produce more milk is because your baby just prefers one breast over the other.
For instance, it's common for mamas to have different amounts of milk-making tissue and different sized milk ducts in each breast, so one breast naturally produces more than the other. Bradley Bengtson, a plastic surgeon in Grand Rapids, MI, "Breasts are sisters, not twins." Different characteristics of each breast can make a real difference in how much milk they produce. This happens because both breasts are not exactly the same.Īccording to Dr. It found that differences in the amount of output are common from the right and left breasts, and that breast milk output from the right breast was greater in 65.7% of the sessions, regardless of left- or right-handedness. In a study published in the Breastfeeding Medicine, the amount of breast milk pumped by more than 200 mamas was measured. Many women have one breast that produces less milk during feedings-sometimes referred to as "uneven milk supply" or (unofficially) "slacker boob." And contrary to what you might think, this uneven milk supply is unrelated to whether you are right- or left-handed, or whether you carry your baby on your left side. But the truth of the matter is that when it comes to biology, the left breast often just can't keep up with the right. That left breast is trying so hard to keep up-and its efforts really are herculean. Ask a breastfeeding mama if she has one breast that produces more breast milk than the other, and she'll likely say yes-it's the one on the right.