The ABC’s of Breastfeeding: Hormones
The basic hormones of breastfeeding production are estrogen, progesterone, prolactin, and oxytocin. There is an excellent video on how the system works here.
But I've been obsessed the last couple of days with the other hormones of breastmilk... the hormonal changes in your milk that happen throughout the day. To our naked eyes, all the milk looks the same, right? We pump out calcium and immune support and all that good stuff and produce the same milk 24/7.... except we don't. And it's amazing to realize the fine tuning our bodies do all day long to help regulate our babies' bodies!
For instance...Cortisol & cortisone, two hormones that help us be more aware of our surroundings, are much higher in a mom's morning milk than in the milk she produces in the evening. We want babies wide awake in the morning but not so much at night time, right?
And another study found that neucleotides that help promote evening sleep and the release of melatonin are at higher levels between 8 p.m. and 8 a.m. So when you're nursing your baby at night, you are literally also helping them sleep! It might not feel that way to you, of course, but it's true. Give yourself grace and also a huge pat on the back after a night of rough nursing: your body is delivering amazing sleepy magic to your baby!
That's not all, folks! Full caveat: I feel like I'm pulling apart sticky cobwebs here, as a doula and not an endocrinologist... but I am so, SO fascinated by everything the scientists are learning here!
We have known for a long time that breastfed babies are less likely to be obese than babies fed formula. As the AAP put it for one study: "...infants’ risk of overweight at 12 months was twice as high when they were fed a combination of breast milk and formula at six months compared to exclusive breastfeeding for six months."
Figuring out all the whys for this is complicated, but one interesting thread of research talks about how hormones like gherlin & recently discovered ones (obestatin & resistin) "have a positive effect on the early control of satiety in infants and could influence the programming of energy balance regulation in childhood and adulthood thereby protecting against later obesity..."
Whoah. Your milk having things like energy balance regulation cues? And cues for satiety not available in other foods ready for them?! Say what? Truly miraculous and something to celebrate!
