I Never Gave Much Thought to My Breast Milk Until I Had It Tested

Updated on 8/1/2019 at 10:25 AM

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The amount of rest you get between delivering your baby (regardless of the method) and needing to begin breastfeeding feels infinitesimal; the responsibilities mothers experience truly are unending. Like many mothers, I struggled with breastfeeding, ultimately enlisting the help of two lactation specialists and a dermatologist before deciding that I'd need to give up breastfeeding and exclusively pump instead. Producing enough milk was hard — my daughter always seemed to want more than I was able to make — but I stuck with it and worked hard at building my supply.

When my daughter was roughly 6 weeks old, Stephanie Canale, a physician at UCLA, reached out to me about her company Lactation Lab, which focuses on providing mothers with nutritional analysis of their breast milk. Curiosity got the best of me, and I asked for a kit. A few days later, it arrived at my doorstep. I collected a small amount of breast milk, froze it, and sent the sample off to be tested.

I told myself that I'd use the analysis as a learning experience about my own health and not let it steer me down a path of guilt about nutrients I might ostensibly be lacking.

I told myself that I'd use the analysis as a learning experience about my own health and not let it steer me down a path of guilt about nutrients I might ostensibly be lacking. Which is exactly what Canale wants women to do with the data. "I had the idea of testing the nutrients in breast milk because my infant daughter wasn't gaining weight, despite getting enough milk," she shared with me when I asked her why she created the company. "My daughter had stopped growing and would not have a bowel movement for 10 days at a time. I felt I was starving her despite giving her enough milk, so I knew there could be an issue with the quality of my breast milk." Wanting to know what was in her breast milk was what sparked the idea to create Lactation Lab.

Lactation Lab At-Home Breast Milk Kit

The Lactation Lab At-Home Breast Milk Kit ($169, originally $199) arrived in a little box, and it was super easy to use. I collected small amounts of milk throughout the day, that way I didn't feel like I was taking a huge loss. Once I had enough, I froze the two vials and packed them up with a freezer bag into a small prepaid envelope.

Lactation Lab At-Home Breast Milk Kit

From

$169

The results were thorough.

A few days later, I received an email with a 10-page PDF attachment of my test results. I told myself that I was only going to use the information as a guide and not let any negative results change how I felt about what I was doing for my daughter.

"I want to help mothers optimize their milk to have the healthiest children possible," Canale explained to me. "When a mom can see evidence that her milk is more nutritious than any formula on the market, and that a few dietary tweaks can optimize her milk, it encourages breastfeeding for as long as possible. That is our goal."

The learnings were eye-opening.

Lactation Lab analyzes 17 nutrients that are critical for infant development, including the presences of environmental toxins, and delivers the results in an easy-to-understand format.

I thought I was a good eater (everything's organic, high in fat and protein, super low in carbs and sugar) but was surprised to see certain vitamins come in so low, like my vitamin C intake. But then I thought more about it. Other vitamins that help with the absorption of nutrients like iron and C were also low, so the connection started to make sense in my head.

"We commonly see low calcium and vitamin A levels in women that are lactose intolerant or who simply do not eat a lot of dairy," Canale shared. "We are also seeing a lot of correlation between women who have low iron in their milk and anemia during pregnancy."

I felt empowered by the data.

I had some deficiencies — vitamin B12, vitamin C, and iron, to name a few. But I learned that vitamin C helps with the absorption of iron, which could explain why, despite being such a meat eater, my iron was so low. I found this data fascinating and immediately ordered supplements.

"We live in an era of personalized medicine and data, and some women can feel at ease when they can learn and see objective data that their milk has just as many if not more calories than infant formula," Canale shared with me. "We try to stress to moms that we are not about looking for deficiencies, but about optimization. We have found that moms become more relaxed knowing that their bodies are providing everything that baby needs."

I already felt like I was giving my daughter everything she needed. Getting my breast milk tested only helped emphasize that, and it showed me the tiny changes I could make in my diet (like swallowing a B12 vitamin) to optimize my milk.