I had a conversation with my wife, who had been struggling with breastfeeding. She told me our baby wasn’t taking to breastfeeding well, and she herself wasn’t producing enough milk. She added that her body felt worn out. Everyone always says that breastfeeding is great for the baby, but nobody mentioned just how incredibly hard it can be. Despite her efforts, like pumping milk at dawn, she doesn’t produce enough and her overall condition doesn’t seem to improve. She's so exhausted and even eating properly is a challenge. However, knowing that a good diet can help with milk production, she forces herself to eat. The noise from construction at her postnatal care center is bothersome, and today she couldn't rest due to the strong smell of fresh paint. She wishes she could just go home and rest. 😭
Due to work commitments, I couldn’t visit her at the center, leaving me feeling helpless. All I could do was to ensure that our home is clean and tidy when she returns. During our chat, she mentioned "Mamlatte Moa", a product said to help increase breast milk production, so I purchased a bottle.
Mamlatte Moa
👉 Price: 50,000 won
👉 Quantity: 1 bottle (30 sachets)
👉 Purchased from: Postnatal care center
The main ingredient in Mamlatte Moa is milk thistle, often called "Maria’s milk". It's believed to aid in fatigue recovery, liver health enhancement, and increasing breast milk production. The recommended dosage is twice a day, one sachet each time, which can be consumed as-is or mixed with water or juice. My wife tried it and said it's slightly less sour than lemon.
The postnatal care center and some YouTube channels related to breastfeeding recommended it, but the product is categorized as a miscellaneous processed food. This means it has not been approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for its functional benefits, otherwise, it would have had the 'Health Functional Food' certification mark. 🤔
The main component of milk thistle, silymarin, is known to promote liver health, resulting in better blood quality which can aid not only in fatigue recovery but also improve breast milk quality. However, the lack of FDA certification implies that the correlation between milk thistle and breast milk or the results of clinical trials are not well-established.
While I did research multiple studies about whether the silymarin in milk thistle genuinely aids in increasing milk production, I couldn’t find any conclusive evidence. Here's a link to a study titled "Clinical Study on Plant Galactagogue Worldwide in Promoting Women's Lactation: a Scoping Review" on PubMed, which does mention silymarin but lacks comprehensive evaluation.
Fortunately, there don't seem to be any side effects, so that's somewhat reassuring. 🥲
Regardless, I purchased it with the hopes of supporting my wife's breastfeeding journey and her desire to feed our baby naturally. 🤔 We'll have to see if we'll purchase another bottle after this one runs out. I hope her condition improves soon (maybe I should make her some restorative soup..🤔).