# The mini pill dried up my milk!



## CBall (Apr 5, 2010)

I'm putting this out there because when I was searching for information about the mini pill I was told it was fine for nursing mothers. Hope this helps someone else.

Since my dd was born I have always had oversupply issues. Therefore I never thought that this could happen to me. I could pump, but really never did. It was too much trouble and we nursed on demand. My dd never took a bottle, I loved just having her with me. Genetically she is tiny but tall. She was always outgrowing the pants of her outfits.

When she was 5 months old I started looking for a better birth control (we had previously been on condoms.) I was terrified of getting pregnant so I wanted something that would really work. The mini pill was recomended to me by my midwife. I asked specifically if it would decrease my milk supply, she adamantly said no. So I went on it. The weeks go by and I notice my baby is fussy all the time and trying to eat solids. So we start her on solids. She went up to eating three meals a day and still being fussy. She still nursed all of the time so I didn't really think anything of it.

She is 7 months old now and when we went to the doctor we found out she weighs 13 pounds which is off the charts small. I feel horrible, I've been essentially starving my own baby. I'm working with a lactation consultant now. I'm on fenugreek, blessed thistle, and some kind of oatmeal milkshake thing. But while my milk supply has increased (she gained 1 oz. last week!







) it is still very low. She cries all the time because now she realizes that she is hungry. I'm pumping and supplementing with formula because my lc wants me to give her 6 oz more than what she can get out of my breast. It's so hard. DD loathes the taste of formula and sobs when we try to give it to her. She is crawling now so she will come over to me sobbing, pat my legs and my breasts if I pick her up, essentially begging for milk. No mother ever wants to see their child beg for food. Nursing is such an emotional thing as well as food. It breaks my heart that now I can't be for her what she wants me to be. My l.c. says that if my milk supply doesn't dramatically increase by next week then there is a medication that I can go on to increase my supply. I did some reading on it and the main side effect is depression. Which I kind of find ironic, because this whole low supply situation has already made me depressed. And I worry because I had a little bit of postpartum depression also. But I'll do anything, pay every dime I own to get my supply up so I don't ever have to hear my baby sob like that again.

If anybody has taken the medication I'd love to hear about it. If not I just hope my story will save somebody else from making the same mistake.


----------



## philomom (Sep 12, 2004)

Sorry, it did not dry up my milk.... it did give me my ds.


----------



## PatioGardener (Aug 11, 2007)

There have been case reports of the mini pill drying up milk. Here in Canada there was actually a warning put out about it.

The medication the LC mentioned is probably reglan. Depression is a side effect. Domperidone is another (IMO safer) option. It is prescription here in Canada. You may want to search for the domperidone thread to read up about it.

There is also great advice in the resources thread in the breastfeeding challenges forum about increasing low supply. It may help to get ideas from Mamas who have been there.







Keep going, Mama! You can do this!


----------



## kittywitty (Jul 5, 2005)

It started to dry up my usual oversupply with my 3rd child. I had been on it very briefly after #1 but with #3 I had only been on it less than a month and my supply dropped to almost nothing. It came back when I stopped the mini-pill.


----------

