I vote for Oats: a bonus for breastfeeding mums.

The vast majority of new mothers can trust their bodies to make breastmilk – it’s automatic and to be expected. Yet in different cultures around the world, there’s an understanding that this normal milk-making process can be enhanced by what a mother eats and drinks.

Nevertheless, before we go any further, let’s be clear: it’s NOT that an ideal or very specific diet has to be eaten in order to make milk. No, as we’ve learned through research, under the influence of hormones, nearly all women’s bodies produce colostrum during pregnancy and then transitional milk from roughly days 3-10 after birth. A new mother needs to do nothing to make this happen! Even in food scarcity situations for the adult, breastmilk continues to be produced.

All the same, we can be aware that what we eat, once digested by the stomach and intestines, is transported around our body in our blood. So the blood that goes to the milk-making cells in the breast is taking what we’ve eaten over to baby. This creates the wonderful situation whereby our babies learn in the earliest weeks of life about all the interesting, tasty and variable flavours that come from Mum’s table:) Many mothers notice that their older baby trying out solids can be very interested in different flavours because they’ve already become familiar to them through breastmilk.

But how is it that some things that mother eats actually increase her milk output? This belief is widely accepted in different societies around the world. In western European cultures, Oats are named as the number one food for lactating women to eat if they want to give milk production a boost. This confidence in oats centres around the fact that they contain higher levels of fats than any other common cereal – and plenty of protein too. The oat grain is a soft one so the flakes that are produced from being passed through a steel roller can become very creamy on cooking. This creamy oat product is easy to digest and the nutrients are easy to absorb, so there is no strain put on mother’s body or extra work of digesting to make her nourishing milk. A woman needs sufficient proteins to make milk. She also needs good fats to help put weight on baby. As oats are blessed with a higher degree of fat and protein, they are a great thing to include in a breastfeeding woman’s diet.

In addition, in herbal medicine, oats can be used in the treatment of nervous exhaustion, by relaxing and nourishing the nerves. When a mother is more relaxed and her stress levels are low, her oxytocin has a chance to surge. Oxytocin is a key hormone for delivering breastmilk during breastfeeding; and the baby is flooded with it during skin to skin contact, making for calmer and more co-ordinated attachment and suckling. This effective suckling optimises milk production by stimulating prolactin. The soothing effect of oats in a mother’s diet can play a part in this.

But there is more to know about oats themselves. The oat grain – the seed –  contains tryptophan. This is a protein which enhances mood and also promotes the production of prolactin, the essential hormone for milk making. Oats also are loaded with saponins (a plant chemical) which in turn influence the pituitary gland – and it’s this gland which has a role in the hormones of lactation. So our saponin- and tryptophan-rich oats are affecting the hormones needed for lactation. For a mother keen to give her milk production a kick-start, large dosages of oats may be helpful. In addition, the oat leaf, called oatstraw, is especially rich in minerals and is often added to “green drinks.”

No wonder we can eat oats with the confidence that they can be a helpful lactogenic food – as well as regulating our blood glucose levels and so keeping our mood and energy steadier!
Try them in porridge, overnight oats, smoothies, flapjacks, biscuits, crumble toppings, muesli, cake and loaves. Oatmeal tea, made from a cup of boiling water poured on to cover a heaped teaspoon of oatmeal flakes, can be flavoured with lactogenic spices such as powdered cinnamon and ginger. It’s gently sweet (but you can always add more honey, blackstrap molasses or malt syrup if wanted) yet high in nutrients and lactation-promoting substances that are easy to digest and absorb. Delicious!