Does drinking pap boost breast milk production?

Woman and a baby sucking thombBreast milk is essential for the upkeep of children and as a means to stimulate its production, many mothers take plenty of pap. This culture, which has been on for ages, experts say, still needs to be proved as being effective, reports Sade Oguntola.

She worked into the female ward with a big bowl of pap for her daughter-in-law that has just had a new baby. Usually, it is the culture that new mothers take pap along with their meals to increase breast milk production. It is believed that much as breast milk is all that the baby should feed on, the production of breast milk should be stimulated as quickly as possible.

Mrs. Anne Akinloye also had prepared a bowl of hot rice and vegetable stew, so that right from the start, the new mother imbibed the practice of adequate intake of food so she could be strong enough to take care of her baby.

Many things can cause a breastfeeding mother to worry about her milk supply decreasing or starting on time. This is normal. However, experts have dispelled as untrue the belief that intake of pap, a n age-long culture, stimulates milk production in nursing mothers. They submitted that this was a myth that could not be substantiated scientifically.

Experts submitted that there were no specific foods to eat that will stimulate production of breast milk, but there were things that could help with milk production, stressing that more important than what the mother ate was how her baby ate. According to them, the longer a baby nurses at the breast, the more milk that will be produced once such a baby is properly positioned, well-attached and sucking effectively.

Dr. Adenike Bello, a Consultant Obstetrician and Gynaecologist at the College of Medicine, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Oyo State, said basically all that was needed to support milk production in a woman were the body hormones, which is naturally produced in the body and the baby’s constant sucking since in it was the sucking that caused the letting down reflex to make more milk come.

According to Dr. Bello, good nutrition and intake of plenty of fluid such as water are just adjuncts to milk production. She explained, “There may be a reason to look into whether the practice of taking pap actually boosts breast milk production. You may assume that it is the fluid in pap that stimulates increase in breast milk production. But, the same women that insist that pap helps to stimulate milk production do not say that water boosts breast milk production.

“By the first principle, one may say if it is just fluid in pap, water should as well have the same effect. So, there is the probably, may be, some substances in pap which had not been studied that accounted for this effect.

Meanwhile, Dr. Bello declared that pap is not harmful but useful considering the fact that the woman gets some energy and water from it. According to him, “when people ask about intake of pap to stimulate or increase breast milk production, I encourage them to drink pap. Even though, I do not know what substances is in it that will make breast milk come, when you hear things anecdotally, and you hear it enough, you find that there must be some truth in it despite scientific evidence to back it up.’

“This is why it would be nice for it to be studied in the laboratory to really know what is really responsible for this effect. You can be certain that if pap was part of a western diet, by now, someone would have taken it to the laboratory and come up with what may be in it that causes breast milk production to be stimulated.

Dr. Bello added that just as women believe that taking pap helps stimulates breast milk, some however, resort to taking palm wine. “The same way a few women swear that a glass of palm wine would have similar effect like pap. Now, I do not advice women to go around taking palm wine because I do not know how intoxicated that palm wine would make the baby.

Everything you eat ends up been secreted into the breast milk and I do not want the baby to get drunk.

However, Dr. Bello said another practice that most women discourage is the addition of sugar to pap because of the notion that the added sugar may affect the baby that would be breastfed, causing pile or what is referred to as jedi-jedi among the Yoruba speaking community.

According to the expert, that intake of sweetened pap will affect the baby really is not true medically. “Breast milk comes from the body; the nutrients in the body are used in its production. So, if you drink garri, after its digestion, it would be stored as a form of glucose in the body. The body would take part of it already stored as glucose as well as other nutrients to make breast milk.

“So, there is nothing like, a woman that eats beans, her child would suck beans or a woman that eats rice, her baby would suck rice. The only thing is that some of whatever may be in the woman’s blood stream that was yet to be stored can enter into breast milk because there is no barrier par say. In the same vein, that does not mean that you eat garri or other foods; it would make the breast milk to be better. No, all those foods are just stored in the body and the body takes from the store and produces breast milk.

Dr. Chris Aimakhu, a consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist with the College of Medicine, Ibadan, corroborated the fact that there was no scientific basis for the belief that drinking pap could boost breast milk in nursing mothers. According to him, “studies have shown that increased fluid intake may be difficult for them. Drinking so much water may be difficult, but they can drink plenty of pap. Also, psychologically, they feel strong and they can breastfeed their babies

According to him, even those that normally do not enjoy taken pap go round the problem by trying various varieties of pap as well as add plenty of milk and sugar to it.

Professor Alice Nte, Director, Institute of Maternal and Child Health, University of Port Harcourt, Port Harcourt, explained that what essentially was required for boosting breast milk production was for mothers to take a little more than was required to satisfy their hunger and ensure they allowed the baby to suck as much he or she desired.

However, research shows that several factors can contribute to a decrease in milk production. Stress can negatively affect milk production and as such, the need to find ways to eliminate unnecessary chores, sit down and close your eyes for a moment or two! The simple act of relaxing will encourage letdown; and at the same time, there is nothing to distract the baby and make him stop nursing before he’s actually full.

Babies kneading the breast naturally trigger breast milk letdown. So, take the time to massage your breasts while in the shower or bath, periodically throughout the day and especially while baby is nursing.