Breast Milk

Breast milk is the perfect food for your baby. At baby's birth, the first milk to be produced by your breast is colostrum, a yellowish fluid rich in vitamins, protein and immune factors. Colostrum provides your newborn with exactly the right balance of nutrition.

Breastfeed often and when you feel the urge. This will help your milk come in gradually and stimulate the quantity to increase.

As the colostrum decreases, your mother's milk may look thinner and watery, but it is still your baby's perfect miracle fast food. Usually, the milk will be “letdown” and fill your breasts when the baby starts to suck. You may feel the tingling sensation of your milk letting down. But sometimes it happens earlier, spontaneously or in response to a baby's cry, and the breasts fill up and leak. This is normal. If your breast should leak, tuck breast pads in your bra to absorb the extra milk.

For an excellent selection of nursing and maternity bras, check out our comprehensive nursing bras page. Also, our Breastfeeding Accessories page outlines a full range of supplies that you will require as a breastfeeding mother.

Fresh Milk: The Secret Life of Breasts is an interesting and very comprehensive book that includes personal stories, basic factual information and a sociopolitical overview of breastfeeding. You can learn more about this and other relevant books in our Breastfeeding Bookstore.