Breastfeeding can be a beautiful experience for a mother and her child.
But it can also be one fraught with worry and heart-wrenching moments when your child is not putting her birth weight back on and continuously becomes thinner.
There are many reasons an infant may not be receiving enough breastmilk, including problems with her latch. Another very common reason is low breast milk production. Fortunately, there are numerous methods (both natural and medical) available to a mother to increase her milk production.
Many mothers shy away from using pharmaceutical galactogogues (substances that enhance the production of breast milk) to increase their milk to avoid exposing their newborn baby to drugs where possible.
Alternative therapies such as chiropractic, which entails manipulating the spine of the patient, to correct vertebral problems, may provide a further avenue to explore when common natural remedies (e.g. tea made from herbs such as fennel, fenugreek seed or stinging nettle) have yielded limited success.
Chiropractic treatment consisting of specific chiropractic spinal adjustments and craniosacral therapy was successful in resolving hypolactation in all three cases so that the establishment of a full nursing relationship was possible between both mothers and their infants.
a study in Journal of Clinical Chiropractic Pediatrics
If you are struggling with breastfeeding, it may well be worth seeing a chiropractor for an examination. Bring your baby along as your chiropractor may be able to establish, whether it is your baby’s latch or perhaps a problem with your spine (or both!) that’s causing your feeding issues.
