Some mothers feel a tingling or pins and needles sensation in the breast. Sometimes there is a sudden feeling of fullness in the breast. While feeding on one side your other breast may start to leak milk. You may become thirsty.
After 3–4 days of making colostrum, your breasts will start to feel firmer. This is a sign that your milk supply is increasing and changing from colostrum to mature milk. Your milk may become whiter and creamier, but this varies between women. If your milk takes longer to come in, don't worry.
When milk is released, it is called the let-down reflex. Signs of milk release are: Tingling, fullness, dull ache, or tightening in the breasts (although some moms do not feel any of these sensations).
When your milk comes in, your breasts will become fuller and firmer. If your baby is feeding well and frequently, this should pass without problems. However, some women's breasts become rock hard, and they may also be tender, uncomfortable, even painful – a condition called breast engorgement.
Breast engorgement. Breast engorgement is when, for whatever reason, your breasts become overly full. They may feel hard, tight and painful. In the early days, engorgement can be due to your milk coming in.
Your breasts feel softer
This happens as your milk supply adjusts to your baby's needs. The initial breast fullness reduces in the first few weeks. At around 6 weeks, breast fullness is completely gone and your breasts may feel soft. This is completely normal and has no effect on your milk supply.
You're not getting let down.
If your breasts feel like they're full but you're not able to get the milk flowing out when you pump, it could be that you're not achieving let down. The let down reflex releases your milk from the milk ducts. This only occurs when you're either breastfeeding or pumping.
Relief for Engorgement
Before feedings, encourage your milk flow. Put a warm, moist washcloth on your breasts or take a warm shower for 10-20 minutes. Massage your breasts before and during feedings, moving from the chest wall to the nipple. If your breast is hard, hand express or pump a little milk before nursing.
For the first 2 to 5 days after your baby is born, you will make a small amount of colostrum, which is all a healthy term baby needs. Colostrum is a thick, rich milk that is high in nutrients. Around day 3 through 5, your milk will come in.
Some women feel the let-down reflex as a tingling sensation in the breasts or a feeling of fullness, although others don't feel anything in the breast. Most women notice a change in their baby's sucking pattern as the milk begins to flow, from small, shallow sucks to stronger, slower sucks.
Milk production generally begins around the midpoint of pregnancy, somewhere between weeks 16 and 22. At this stage your body is producing what's known as colostrum—a yellowish milk that's rich in calories and disease-fighting antibodies—which will serve as baby's first food after birth.
*In the first few days, you will have colostrum. It's common only to express a few drops of colostrum. Milk usually 'comes in' between day 2 and 6. It takes at least 2 weeks for milk production to to establish and become consistent.
Breastfeeding: The Let-Down Reflex
This usually happens when your baby sucks on your breast. You may even have a let-down when your baby or someone else's baby cries, or for no reason at all. Some women don't feel the let-down. Others may feel a pins and needles or tingling sensation.
Gentle massage: It's easier for a baby to nurse on a softened breast as opposed to a tight, swollen breast. Gently massaging the breast before feeding and while baby is nursing helps improve the flow of breast milk.
Engorged breasts are a temporary problem but can happen as long as you produce milk. The most common reasons for breast engorgement are: You've given birth and your milk is “coming in.” You're breastfeeding (chestfeeding) and skip nursing sessions.
If you use a breast pump when you are engorged, pump for short periods of time, 5 to 10 minutes at a time. If you pump for too long, you may make the engorgement worse or last longer than usual.
Despite views to the contrary, breasts are never truly empty. Milk is actually produced nonstop—before, during, and after feedings—so there's no need to wait between feedings for your breasts to refill.
In pregnancy, the breasts may start to produce milk weeks or months before you are due to have your baby. If your nipples are leaking, the substance is usually colostrum, which is the first milk your breasts make in preparation for feeding your baby. Leaking is normal and nothing to worry about.
Will my baby unlatch when the breast is empty? Your breasts are never really empty. You might feel they're less full, but you can usually squeeze some milk out if you try. Generally, babies will unlatch when they've had enough.
Keep Hydrated
As a nursing mother, you need about 16 cups per day of water, which can come from food, beverages and drinking water, to compensate for the extra water that is used to make milk.
Increasing your milk supply will take time, so don't give up. Even dry pumps (when you pump but nothing comes out) sends a signal to your body that more milk is needed on tap, so it's getting the work done even if there's no output to show for it right away. Stick with it and you'll see the results after a few days.
Some might feed every 90 minutes, whereas others might go 2–3 hours between feedings. Newborns should not go more than about 4 hours without feeding, even overnight.