Milk Transfer

Typically around day 3-5 (or possibly longer if you have had complications, an assisted vaginal birth or a caesarean section), you’ll notice a difference in how your breast feels and the consistency of your milk.

When your baby attaches to the breast, they will do short shallow sucks to which will trigger the oxytocin release that will help to deliver your milk. They will then settle into a deep, rhythmical sucking pattern. At the beginning of the feed, there is more water. As the deep rhythmical sucking continues, you will hear your baby swallowing milk every one or two sucks. They may also have short pauses before starting that pattern again. After a while you will notice that the sucks become more infrequent but you might feel “flutters” with more occasional swallowing (some mums say it feels like their baby is tickling them, or their tongue is vibrating against your nipple). This helps to draw even more fat down the ducts as fat is thick and sticky.

You can see from the image below, the different parts of the feed and how the suck/swallow pattern changes throughout. There is always fat in your breastmilk. At the beginning of a feed there is fat in the duct from the previous feed and as the feed goes on, more fat gets pulled down the milk ducts by your baby sucking, so although the volume of milk decreases over a feed, the concentration of fat increases.

Breastfeeds can be long or short. UNICEF guide that anywhere between 5 minutes and 40 minutes can be expected. Your baby will take what they need if they are effectively attached and healthy.

Babies are all very different, and it is important not to get too worried about length of feed. As long as that pattern seems to be present more often than not. If baby’s weight is ok, there are lots of wet and dirty nappies, your baby is content and alert between feeds, all will be going well.