Progesterone Only Birth Control Pills and Decrease in Milk Supply

Ali,

First, congratulations on your miracle and for pumping at work! It's hard work!!!!

The progesterone only pills work fine for a lot of women, but really any hormones have the potential to affect your supply. There are lots of things you can do to help increase your supply. You touched on a bunch of stuff so forgive me for just running down the list as I caught them please:

Feeling Full - around 3-4 months out, your supply is switching from hormone driven to supply and demand driven. It's very common to not get engorged at this point. It doesn't mean that there's no milk or nto enough milk, just that your body is regulated to your baby and your baby's schedule (or the pump schedule).

How many bottles are you sending to day care? How full are the bottles? Is your care provider using alternative methods to sooth the baby when fussy or just putting a bottle in?

The average nursing mother can pump .5 to 2 oz from BOTH breasts combined per pumping session, so it's common to need multiple sessions to make a bottle. (www.kellymom.com).

To increase supply, take a nursing vacation on your next day off - spend the day skin to skin in bed or on the couch. Just cuddle and nurse, nurse, nurse. Drink lots of water. Eat all the oatmeal you can handle - cookies count too. (there's a great recipe for lactation cookies floating around the internet).

If you decide you need to go that route, there are herbs and teas that can help increase supply, things like fenugreek, mother's milk tea, and I believe blessed thistle.

How often are you pumping? When DD first started sleeping well for me and was going down around 8 pm, she'd sleep until about 3 am. I added a pumping session around 10-11 PM and it quickly grew to be a productive session for me.

I can't say for sure whether the bleeding you're seeing is related to pill withdrawl or the return of your cycles. If it is an actual period, it is very commong for a lot of women to see a supply drop between ovulation and the start your period.

And of course, it's always possible that it's a growth spurt and the baby is trying to ramp up your supply to meet new demand levels.

Best wishes, you're doing a great job!

S.

Hi Ali

Contact your local la leche league representative

www.llli.org

progesterone is a male hormone.

Good luck. D.

The herb blessed thistle and especially fenugreek will increase your milk supply. the fenugreek will also help w/ gas and stomach issues. I would stop taking the pills that you are taking. I suggest for buying herbs- natures sunshine- they have the highest quality and ship quickly. if u have any questions email me or check out my website... www.mynsp.com/ritak I hope everything turns out well for you and your baby!

Hi Ali!

The exact same thing happened to me. I started the progesterone only pills when my son was two months. I got what seemed like my period and noticed my milk supply dropped like crazy. I chose to go off the pill and my milk supply increased again and I didn't have a period until after I stopped nursing my son around 6 months. I am thinking the bleeding could have been because of the pill, but I'm not sure.

Hope this helps and good luck!

He could also be going thru a growth spurt. My son always seemed hungry from about 2.5 months thru about 4.5 months. Also one thing that I didn't know before but was told, breastfed babies only need 1oz per hour. Your milk changes fat content to support your growing baby. Just make sure that he is getting the hindmilk and not just foremilk. Check out kellymom.com for a lot of really good breastfeeding information.

Also your milk does taste different while you are on your period. My son always seems more fussy during that time.

I'm not sure if my supply went down when I first started birth control (I'm taking the Mini Pill which is a progesterone only pill also), because my son started a growth spurt right about that time too, so he was eating more often anyways.

I had a very similar issue. From what I read, your milk supply decreases when you get your period. It will pick back up a few days later. It is scarey when it happens though. My daughter practically went through my milk savings in our freezer!

Yes, progesterone-only BCP are safe for breastfeeding, but unfortunately they do also decrease your milk supply. My doctor actually would not perscribe them for me b/c of the decreased milk supply issue. I have had a poor supply from day one. I would recommend to stop taking the pills and start taking the supplement Fenugreek (I get it at GNC). The Fenugreek will boost your supply within a couple days. It worked wonders for me! As far as birth control, I would use condoms until you are done breastfeeding, then contact your doctor for a perscription.

If you get off the pills immediately you can work to build your supply back up but it will probably take a few days or even a couple of weeks to do so

With my first child I went on the progesterine only bc pills and I definately noticed a decrease in my milk supply even though the doctor assured me that there wouldn't be one, or that it would be so minimal as to have no impact. My supply increased with little problem when I stopped taking them. I never had an issue with my supply diminishing with my period but then I was almost a year in each time before it came back so I can't really help you with that part. I hope now that you've stopped your supply comes back.

Your milk supply does decrease during your period! But I don't know about the progesterone-only BC. If it's only the former, then the good news is that you'll only have to worry about it 1x/month.

Milk-boosting remedies (tried-and-true!): Mother's Milk Tea (from your grocery store, usually in the organic section), oatmeal (yes!), and fenugreek supplements (I haven't had to take these but I understand it's easy to find -- fenugreek is an herb). Good luck!

My sister's son is about 5 months old. She had the same problem about a month ago. What her and a good friend of mine noticed was that when you get your period back the milk slowed. I know i had times where it drifted off a little...i think it may have been when my period came back. I don't know...it's just a theory...

My only advice is the mother's milk tea and breastfeeding as much as you possibly can. Good luck :)