Donating milk is a bandaid solution to overactive letdown. It increases, rather than decreases your problem. And if you've got a colicky baby, who is going to hold the baby while you pump? Not to mention, many jurisdictions don't have legal milk donation programs.

Thank you, thank you, thank you! I have severe oversupply issues and it was so maddening when everyone (and I mean EVERYONE) is like "why don't you donate it?" I tell them that I have worked very, very hard to bring it down for all of these reasons, but it still feels like they are judging me because I don't.

Also, you can always DONATE milk now if you have tons! I consider it a blessing because now I am able to find those in need through Human Milk 4 Human Babies!!! So wonderful...we are all balancing each other...when we choose to <3

I wish I had read your post when I was struggling with this issue with my second baby. It may have enabled me to keep breastfeeding her longer. She absolutely and utterly refused to nurse after 3 months, and I kept pumping as long as I could after that, but it's not the same. I hope this helps someone like me.

THANK you Gina for posting this. I always felt I had to keep this issue for myself, not to rub it in the face of mum having the opposite issue. When mentioning it to a nurse "specialized in breastfeeding" I exactly got what you mentioned: "you are lucky to have this problem, so many mums would love to experience it". Well, that does NOT makes me feel better, even worth actually.My baby is in pain because of me and I feel pretty bad about it. I was lucky that I had some education around breastfeeding and kept seeking for help elsewhere.

I had to deal with both over and undersupplies, and they both had their own set of issues. Just because you have one doesn't mean you won't have to deal with the other at some point. (Yay?)

The one thing I hate at this moment is since my current nursling had problems with my apparently forceful let down and over supply, she latches, but will push away from me at the same time. Ouch. Knock that off, baby.

There is no feeling that is equal to having your infant latched on and yelling at your breast because the milk is coming too fast for her. Her screams vibrated through my whole body. Your breast is supposed to fix your baby's problems and instead it just makes it worse, and endangers comfort nursing for your entire breastfeeding relationship.

While both undersupply and oversupply are problems, I think the self-doubt in undersupply aggravates the issue. At least with oversupply you know that you are producing, and so (hopefully) are less vulnerable to the formula pushers of society.

Yes. We need to get over the idea that the opposite of whatever our personal problems are, are not problems. I've had people claim envy when I mention that my sister has a hard time gaining weight because of her Crohn's disease. Why would you envy someone whose bowels are bleeding and who has to fight to stay at 100 pounds? Everyone has different problems, and they are all valid.

Thank you so much for this post! I had an oversupply and overactive letdown with my daughter (now 12 months old - we're still BF'ing!) and it was awful! Like another poster said, I just sat and cried with her in my arms most days because we just couldn't get it. Eventually things started to get better around 9-10 weeks PP thank goodness but it was really hard and I went through my fair share of cabbage leaves in my bras to help alleviate the pain (don't laugh, they worked). Anyway, I'm SO happy I stuck with it and that my baby did too. A couple women from my local LLL helped so much just by listening and responding to my desperate emails and giving advice. If you have this problem, there are solutions so don't despair!

Thank you for this post--how true! I would like to point out that mastitis does not always require antibiotics. Both LLL and kellymom seem to agree that home remedies like rest and emptying the breast can effectively treat cases that improve or don't worsen in 12-24 hours. http://www.kellymom.com/bf/concerns/mom/mastitis.html#antibiotics

A suggestion for anyone picking up their antibiotic prescription to treat mastitis; If they give you a form to fill out don't check the box that says you're breastfeeding. The pharmacist refused to give me my prescription without talking to my midwife because it said to talk to a doctor before use if you were pregnant or breastfeeding. Despite my insistence that it was fine because of course she wouldn't prescribe an antibiotic I couldn't take while breastfeeding for a complication of breastfeeding I had to wait in the pharmacy for over an hour while he waited for a call back (she was attending a birth and of course wasn't returning a call from a pharmacy while her other client was pushing).

I am currently experiencing hyperlactation and have been diagnosed with thrush which is caused by having oversupply of milk. I leak all the time which causes constant moisture. Because I have 4 children I don't have time to change pads or change bras which has caused thrush and cranky/gassy baby. The article forgot to add this part of the misery of hyperlactation/oversupply.

YES. Just, yes. With my first two, I struggled to make enough milk for my babies and weight gain (or lack thereof) was a HUGE issue. This time I've got so much milk, I wake up swimming in it. My poor baby drowns at every feed. I blame the placenta pills. Awesome for preventing PPD and, apparently, making milk. I've spent quite a bit of time over at KellyMom the last three weeks trying to figure out a way to make bfing work this time.

This is so true! I'm a first-time mom struggling through oversupply and forceful letdown (and mastitis and fore/hindmilk imbalance... all the fun stuff.) At first I thought something was seriously wrong with my child because he seemed to hate breastfeeding - little did I know I was practically drowning him... Luckily a LC at my two-week postpartum appointment set me straight and we're doing much better now, at 6 weeks PP, but hearing it can get even better at 12 weeks made my day. :)

I was an over-producer with my first baby. Honestly, I didn't mind it. It was easy to accumulate a store of frozen milk, which came in handy for my own baby, but also allowed me to donate to a baby who absolutely needed it and whose mother couldn't produce it. I'm not saying my experience justifies ridiculing women who lament over-producing, I'm just saying that my experience with it wasn't miserable (once we'd figured out how to handle it, after about the first month) and that I would choose over-producing before lacking supply.

Thanks for this. I about drown my babies the first 10 weeks or so. My youngest baby was 4 weeks old and my husband's therapist asked how the baby was doing. DH mentioned the oversupply problem and the therapist said, "The baby's old enough now to switch to formula" Yeah, that would really help.

Thank you!! I am always told I should have been grateful for my oversupply. My son developed a bad latch that left me with bleeding nipples for 3 entire weeks and anxiety about the pain of feeding him that lasted for months. And he would choke and gag and cry every time I fed him for the first 3 weeks as well. Up until about 3 months, I only fed form one side at a time in attempt to regulate my supply and so I was always uneven too.

I had oversupply, but not over-active-letdown, so it was kind of hard to "diagnose" at first, but we had the rapid, rapid early weight gain, bad latch (why bother to latch properly when you're getting boatloads at first?), reflux, fussy baby who fought the breast and refused to comfort nurse, and the green poops that were the bain of my existence until block feeding and time resolved the issue. Did I mention I had mastitis twice? Within the first month of my EBF daughter's life? But it did resolve, and things were (pretty much) smooth sailing from about 3 months until she weaned with only very gentle encouragement from me at 18-19 months.

I am going to say that when everything did totallly regulate, I missed the ease and quickness with which I could pump out a bottle in those first oversupply months back at work.

Yes, yes, YES! I have had mastitis 14 times between my two children, leading to countless prescriptions for antibiotics and countless days spent groaning in bed with extreme pain and fever instead of nurturing my children. For me, mastitis has been directly connected to an oversupply problem. If my child sleeps through a feeding time or doesn't feel hungry, I immediately develop clogged ducts that may turn into a painful infection. I've suffered through awful doctors and lactation consultants who chide me for continuing to breastfeed despite chronic mastitis. I can't stand being blown off by people who "wish they had my problem."

Thank you for this. I had serious oversupply with my first and second babies and it did lead to almost all the problems you list. In fact, it almost forced me to give up bf (thankfully, a good LC helped me to manage the issue and I was able to continue to bf both girls until 15 months and 18 months respecfively). I was so enormously relieved when my supply was ample but not ridiculous, and with a less forceful letdown, with my third child - I have no idea why it was so, but I was grateful for it, and for having, just one time, a gentle, non-painful, mastitis free breastfeeding experience.