Breastfeeding and Insufficient Glandular Tissue-All you Need to Know

Breastfeeding is the most natural and undoubtedly the best way to nourish the baby. The amazing qualities that mother’s milk possesses are hard to find in any formula milk powder. In fact, no formula milk company claims their product to be an alternative to mother’s milk. Every mother is naturally equipped to nourish, feed and produce milk for her child as per the demand barring a few obstacles that can be dealt with easily by taking the best lactation cookies from Milky Mama.  But in a very rarest of rare cases, some women aren’t just physically able to produce milk for their baby despite putting every effort they can. I say rarest of rare because it's pretty unlikely to happen in women but some women do have Insufficient Glandular Tissue (IGT) also known as Mammary hypoplasia.

What is Insufficient Glandular Tissue?

Mammary hypoplasia is simply a condition in which the woman is unable to produce sufficient or no milk for her child. When the mother was in her teenage years, she didn’t develop proper mammary glands that led to this condition. Her breasts can be large or small, but it doesn’t have any effect on the production of the milk. The size of the breast doesn’t determine how much milk a woman can produce. How big the size of the breast generally tells the fatty tissue in the breast- the larger the breasts the fattier tissue and the smaller the breast the lesser the fatty tissue. The production of the milk stems from glandular tissue and nothing else.

Signs that Indicate IGT

There are many physical signs that can be good indicators of insufficient glandular tissue in women. When diagnosing a woman for mammary hypoplasia pay heed to the shape of the breasts, the placement of the breasts and symmetry of the breasts. With much research done on this issue, almost all the women had the same features in their breasts who were suffering from IGT. The first sign is the abnormally spaced breasts, the distance between each breast is more than 2-5 inches! The other sign to look out for is the asymmetry of the breasts, one breast is significantly larger than the other. It's no small difference that can be written off, it's notable and quite prominent. Women with IGT also have tubular shaped breasts meaning empty sacked shaped breasts in appearance that strongly indicates something is wrong.

Other than the physical signs, there are a few more things that can further cement the fact that the woman does have IGT. During the pregnancy period the whole-body changes and adjusts to the new life growing inside and so does the breasts as they kick start the milk making. But mothers who have IGT will find little to no change in their breasts. This is mainly because the boob fairy didn’t bless her with liquid gold that is the mother’s milk. Another sign to look out for IGT in women is the unusually large and huge disproportionate areola, which sometimes feel like it was attached later on. It doesn’t seem to be a part of the natural breast structure.  The strange thing is that some mothers who have one or more than one physical sign matching the above are fully capable of nursing and producing sufficient milk for their little one.

Is Nursing a Possibility for Hypoplastic Breasts?

Yes! Even if a woman has IGT she can still nurse her baby. This basically depends on how underdeveloped the mammary gland is, even if it’s slightly developed the woman will be able to nurse her child with help from formula milk and other substitutes. If the mothers want to know how to increase milk supply in the most natural and effective way then she can try the best lactation cookies, drinks and supplements from Milky Mama and see a boost in milk supply. Sometimes one breast isn’t developed with the mammary gland but the other one is perfectly well, even then the mother can nurse her child effectively. In such cases the mother needs to nurse the baby more often so that the supply of milk remains steady. Make sure that her latching and positioning of the baby is good, taking herbal supplements that naturally boosts milk supply is a great addition to the diet.

For mothers who have no development of this tissue can still feel the closeness and bonding with the child by using the Supplemental Nursing System (SNS). This is done by putting the milk in a container which can hang by the neck of the mother or she can hold it. A thin tube is attached to the breasts which goes into the mouth of the baby when he/she sucks the breasts and the other end of the tube is placed in the milk container.

Ending Lines

IGT is a condition that certain women are born with and there is nothing much that can be done for it. You can only say for sure that the breast tissue is underdeveloped when the woman becomes pregnant or wants to nurse the baby.