In the Health Center where I work we usually see babies in the first week of life and then more or less when they have two weeks, to check that everything is going well and that they are gaining weight correctly.
It usually happens that in the first week some women arrive with problems with breastfeeding that, when they arrive in the second week, they tell you that they had to give a bottle because the child was not satiated and of course, “now there is no turning back,” as if at the time the baby stops breastfeeding the mother's milk will be removed forever.
Well, I think it's important to know that even when it's been weeks, and even when it's been months, it is possible to breastfeed again (or at least it is possible to make milk come out again ... another thing is that the baby is properly grasped if it has been a long time).
Breastfeeding is called relating again
To speak with ownership, and in case you want to talk to someone who knows the subject by naming the subject by name, breastfeeding again is called relating.
To relate is then to re-produce milk for a baby that has been weaned before and it could also be said that it is when a woman is breastfeeding and wants it to be an exclusive breastfeeding.
Why can a woman want to breastfeed again?
I will always remember the case of a mother with a four-month-old baby who stopped breastfeeding because she was sick and gave her bottles for more than a week. Being already healthy, she told me that she really missed breastfeeding, that she would have loved to give him more time. I told him that if I wanted I could give it again. Maybe at first (the first two or three days) did not come out enough and the baby complained a little, but with frequent breastfeeding and some stimulation he could get it.
A week later he came back to the office and told me that I had not tried, because his family had convinced him that it was foolish to breastfeed again if the baby had already left him ("go, now that he has left him and that is fine, what nonsense to breastfeed again").
No one understood why that woman wanted to breastfeed again, being the main reason, in this case, that the mother wanted to go back to where she left before being sick, as if she had made a parenthesis for an important reason (of in fact, it was like that) and after closing the parenthesis I would like to continue with the previous one.
Other reasons may be to want to breastfeed because it has been decided to give artificial milk, for whatever reason, and it is discovered that it does not tolerate baby formulas well, because a baby (or several) is in an emergency situation and decides feed her with breast milk to avoid malnutrition and infections, because a mother decides to breastfeed even though she had decided not to, simply because she has changed her mind and perhaps for other reasons, because the motivation of each mother can be personal and non-transferable, as reality He is living.
How to get a baby related
I will not extend much at this point because it is not the goal of the entry, but basically there are two things that must be clear: get the amount of milk to increase and the baby to take the breast.
To get the amount of milk to increase, you just want to have more milk and work accordingly. This is stimulating as many times as possible the chest with extraction, either manual, or with breast pump. After a few days, a little milk begins to come out (if it has been a long time since she was breastfeeding) and as the amount is stimulated more, it continues to increase.
There is no guarantee that the amount of milk can be enough to give milk exclusively to the baby, but it can be done, sure, mixed breastfeeding, many mothers eventually end up removing the bottles when the baby eats other things , then breast milk is the only source of milk.
The other thing necessary is for the baby to catch. The older it is and the longer it has been since he took the chest, the harder it can be to get a good grip on his chest. It is always advisable to do the technique of spontaneous consolidation, because the best thing that can happen is that the baby takes and starts to breastfeed and the worst thing that can happen is that it does not catch, but mother and baby have a good time together, enjoying the body heat that one transmits to the other.
If she takes it to the breast it will always be a little easier than if she does not take it, basically because in the mental image that a woman is doing breastfeeding again she and her baby appear sucking, but if you do not get caught you can always do deferred breastfeeding, which is to give the milk extracted by bottle.
The one who takes or not depends on many factors. Normally, if milk does not come out they do not usually catch and, as milk comes out, and more and more, then they have a reason to do so (that taking without eating is also, but if they have not done so for a long time ...).
Summarizing
Yes, a woman can regain her breastfeeding whenever she wants, even when several weeks and months have passed. Most think that the milk has been withdrawn and that they will not return until they have a child again, however this is not the case. As soon as there is enough stimulation the milk sprouts again. The less time has passed better, of course, but it is not necessary to mark a date on the calendar to determine when there will be success and when not, because all that is needed is desire and commitment.
If the baby then takes the breast well, the better, the two will enjoy the process more. If he doesn't take it, then the mother will have the “at least I tried” forever and “I gave her my bottle with milk until…”, which is not a little.
