728x90
my iParenting
From Our Sponsors
Get Pregnancy Information
e-newsletters
Sign up to receive our free weekly e-newsletters

new terms of use
new privacy policy
award-winning products
The iParenting Media Awards program helps parents find the best products for their families.
Home › Articles › Overcoming Difficulties › Breastfeeding and PCOS

Breastfeeding and PCOS

Living and Feeding With Low Milk Supply

By Krissi Danielsson

Pages:  1  2  3  4  

Polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) is a silent villain that can wreak havoc on a woman's body. It afflicts 10 to 15 percent of the female population with symptoms like fertility problems, acne, weight gain and various hormone-related complications. While conquering infertility is the first hurdle for many PCOS patients, some mothers with PCOS continue to face difficulties even after their babies are born.

Jennifer Denys of Hobart, Ind., is one such mother. Her doctors suspected PCOS while she was trying to conceive, but Denys did not receive an official diagnosis until after her daughter's birth – at which time she also struggled with a seriously low milk supply. "My milk came in about six days after delivery," she says. "My daughter would want to nurse all the time and was still losing weight."

After meeting with a lactation consultant, Denys used the test weighing method and found that even after nursing for 20 minutes, her 5-week-old baby was only getting about an ounce of milk – far less than she needed. "Mine was a low supply issue," she says.

Denys continued to nurse her daughter for five months but supplemented with formula after each session in order to assure she got enough to eat. Sadly, the problems Denys encountered are not at all unusual for mothers with PCOS. While the majority of women with PCOS are able to nurse their babies without major difficulty, many struggle with low milk supply.

The Connection
Lisa Marasco, MA, IBCLC, is a lactation consultant in Santa Maria, Calif. She has studied the impact of PCOS on breastfeeding and first suspected the connection after seeing two patients within a week show up with low milk supply and similar symptoms. "I looked at their history and found out they both had infertility issues and a diagnosis of PCOS," she says.

Building on her interest in low milk supply, Marasco decided to investigate the PCOS connection more thoroughly, making it the subject of her Master's thesis. She studied a group of women with diagnosed lactation failure, and she found that PCOS was indeed a risk factor. Half of the women with lactation failure suffered from obesity, and 67 percent suffered from infertility – both of which are side effects of PCOS. Some women in her study group had never been diagnosed with PCOS but displayed symptoms and turned out to actually have the disorder.

"As it unfolded, I began to realize it was a great big huge spider web," Marasco says.

Why?
Pages:  1  2  3  4  


Want to see more?