Photo: Jade Beall
1. Cup size has nothing to do with your milk storage capacity. Hormones are what trigger your mammary glands to secrete milk.
2. No one has symmetrical breasts, but they might become more lopsided during breastfeeding if your baby always favours one side. It?s also possible to feed a baby using only one boob. While some nursing women?s breasts balloon, others don?t grow much at all, but they?re still able to meet their baby?s needs.
3. Today 90 percent of Canadian women report ever breastfeeding at all, with 51 percent stopping at the four-month mark and 14 percent stopping at six months.
4. Your boobs can leak even if you?re just thinking about your baby (or you hear another baby cry). Wear nursing pads, and know you might be sleeping in a bra for a while. 5. Breastmilk has healing powers: It contains antibodies that defend your baby against infections. A few drops of breastmilk can also soothe a newborn?s diaper rash or sore throat, treat acne, and help alleviate eye and ear infections. Your milk can also ease eye irritation if your baby has a plugged tear duct (which is common in infants).
6. Feeling drowsy" It?s not just sleep deprivation. Lactating releases oxytocin, which causes a relaxing sensation.
7. Newborns take anywhere from 5 to 40 minutes (occasionally even longer) to nurse.
8. Breastmilk tastes like cow?s milk, but is nuttier, sweeter and almost vanilla-like. Hindmilk (at the end of a nursing session) is creamier, thicker and more li...