Consume 1,200 milligrams of calcium per day. A balanced diet only provides 800 to 1,000 milligrams of calcium daily. Because nursing mothers need 1,200 milligrams, a calcium supplement will probably be necessary. Calcium needs can also be partly met from dairy products, raw vegetables, almonds, and hazelnuts.
Do not rush to buy vitamin A supplements. People often talk about vitamin A supplements for nursing mothers, because their daily need rises from 1,000 milligrams to 1,300 milligrams. It is true that if the woman had a vitamin A deficiency during pregnancy, this problem may worsen after childbirth. But anyone who eats enough carrots, vegetables, butter, fish, and meat will absorb enough vitamin A.
We hear a lot about foods that can irritate the baby-turnips, celery, watercress, citrus fruits, onions, cabbage, spices, leeks, cauliflower-by giving him gas or changing the taste of his mother's milk. For example, some people say that garlic increases milk production; others say it gives the baby gas. There is no universal rule. Moreover, different cultures prefer foods that others consider to be "bad" for nursing mothers. Each baby reacts differently to the foods his mother consumes. If your baby is particularly disturbed one day, try to remember what you have eaten in the past twenty-four hours. If one food seems suspect, eliminate it from your diet for a while.
When nursing, observe your baby so you can eliminate from your own diet any food that seems to bother him. There exist nutritional supplements that are said to increase milk production. Their effects have not been proven scientifically, but they have a placebo (psychological) effect. Be careful, some of these supplements have a very high sugar content, and are therefore high in calories. Also, many midwives will tell you that fennel and beer increase milk production, and that parsley stops it.
Additional Resources
La Leche League International
P.O. Box 4079
1400 N. Meacham Rd.
Schaumburg, IL 60173
800-La Leche
Nursing Mothers'Counsel (NMC)
P.O. Box 50063
Palo Alto, CA 94303
Referral Line: 415-386-2229
International Lactation Consultants' Association
4101 Lake Boone Trail
Raleigh, NC 27602
919-787-5181
The Art of Successful Breastfeeding: A Mother's Guide (Video)
The Vancouver Breastfeeding Center
604-875-5017
The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding
The La Leche League
800-La-Leche
Copyright © 2002 Sylvia Brown with Mary Dowd Struck
Sylvia Brown wrote The Post-Pregnancy Handbook in response to her own frustration at the lack of comprehensive information for the mother in the weeks and months after childbirth. This is her first book.
Trained as a nurse/midwife at Columbia University, Mary Dowd Struck, R.N., M.S., C.N.M., has been a senior vice president for Patient Care Services at Women and Infants Hospital in Providence, Rhode Island, since 1986 and has been a teaching associate in obstetrics and gynecology at Brown University School of Medicine since 1994. Before her current appointment, she was both a nurse and administrator at hospitals across Rhode Island and New York.
