Hyperlactation— is there such a thing as too much milk?
New moms are often concerned about not having enough milk. So much (appropriate) focus is put on the baby’s apparent satiation and weight gain. So much (inappropriate) attention is drawn to freezers full of frozen milk on social media.
Is there such a thing as too much milk? Yes!
To say it concisely— you need enough milk to feed your baby, no more, no less.
Hyperlactation, or oversupply, is when a lactating mother makes more than her baby needs. The breasts are often full and uncomfortable, and they may leak between feeds. If the breast is emptied to satisfy the baby's needs, specific markers in any residual breast milk will give feedback to the milk-producing lactocytes to down-regulate further milk production. If excess breast milk is expressed, for example, by excessive pumping, that feedback does not occur so the breast continues to make more milk. This leads to more breast fullness and discomfort, which drives the desire to empty the breasts again creating a cycle that just propagates.
Hyperlactation can progress to localized inflammation associated with mammary gland ductal narrowing, imbalanced growth of the normal bacteria found in the mammary gland, and subsequent impairment of milk flow.
This describes inflammatory mastitis – a condition on the spectrum of pathology that, at its more severe, can lead to bacterial mastitis with or without abscess or phlegmons. ABM protocol #36 includes addressing any underlying hyperlactation as an important part of preventing and managing conditions on the mastitis spectrum.
Breast milk supply is very Goldilocks— the baby doesn’t want too little, the breasts don’t want too much, mommy and baby want it just right.
