Can all babies breastfeed? Can all mothers make enough milk to breastfeed?
Only a tiny percentage of mothers cannot physically produce all the milk their babies’ need – even for twins and triplets. However, not all babies take to breastfeeding automatically, particularly babies who suffer from jaundice or other medical conditions and full milk production naturally takes a few days to get established. This is not a problem for a strong, healthy baby, but can be more of a concern for a baby with medical problems who needs calories quickly. Establishing a milk supply is controlled by the hormones oxytocin and prolactin which are stimulated by the action of baby suckling. If a newborn is too weak to suckle, or natural frequent feeding is interrupted by medical procedures or too many visitors in the way etc this can result in a vicious circle of not enough suckling, so not enough stimulation, so not enough milk, not enough calories, leading to an even weaker suck. Unless baby can be persuaded to suckle, the remedy for this is to start expressing milk at the first
