Pregnant in Philadelphia? Here are some of my favorite holistic practitioners

Christine's Care & Compassion

3 hours ago

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Christine's Care & Compassion

21 hours ago

I really love this photo and Facebook says it has been 2 years since I shared it. It helps to illustrate why “foremilk” and “hindmilk” are unhelpful terms. And it’s a useful illustration for why breast massage or the use of vibration (I recommend a vibrating kid’s toothbrush) can increase the fat content of breastmilk. Here we go...

Babies feeding at the breast get an increasing amount of fat in the milk as the feeding progresses. This increase in fat is an artifact of how we feed babies. If the baby was allowed unpredictable, continual access to the breast, the fat content would remain the same over the feeding. However, since continual access to the breast is unrealistic, we typically feed our babies as individual feedings separated over time (obviously better for our sanity). This results in low fat milk in the beginning of the feeding and higher fat content at the end.

The amount of fat in the milk varies with the amount of milk in the breast: a full breast has less fat and a less full breast has a higher fat content. This has a lot to do with the resistance of fat to being removed from the breast.

This picture shows lactating breast tissue, magnified 160 times, and fat cells stained with osmium tetroxide which makes them black. You can see the round appearance of the alveoli and the white center of the alveoli, which is milk. The fat cells hang on to the walls of the alveoli and it takes more energy to move them from that spot when the alveoli is full of milk compared to the energy needed when there is less milk being made. When the alveoli is not as full of milk, the fat is easier to remove.

So, when we wait for hours between feedings, the alveoli first releases milk with a lower fat content, and as milk is removed, more fat enters. We have a higher milk volume in the morning, which then is lower in fat, and a lower milk volume at night, which therefore has more fat. This often leads to discussions of "foremilk" and "hindmilk"- unhelpful terms that are used to describe lower fat milk and higher fat milk respectively. The use of those terms makes it seem as if there are two types of milk (low fat and and high fat) and as if there is a point at which we switch from one type to another. Neither is true. If you look at the picture, there are some alveoli full of milk with no fat in the center and others that are completely collapsed and full of fat. The picture demonstrates nicely that the fat content is not all -or -nothing. The increase in fat is gradual over the course of the feeding. “Foremilk” and “hindmilk” are terms that lead to confusion about lactose concentration as well. (But that’s Information for another post.) ... See MoreSee Less

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