If it turns inward, talk to your health-care provider, who may recommend you sparingly massage your nipples. Now is the time to take a breastfeeding class, offered by hospitals and childbirth education associations. Such instruction provides more information than the short segment on nursing included in childbirth classes, says Auer. If you're leaking a lot, consider wearing a properly fitted nursing bra with washable pads. Now free of the inhibiting pregnancy hormones, the prolactin that's being produced by the pituitary gland can finally let the acini cells in the alveoli know that it's time to make milk.
Milk usually forms within two to three days after delivery.
In the meantime, breasts produce colostrum. Right after childbirth, women don't usually notice any difference in their breasts. Even when a newborn begins sucking out the precious colostrum, there isn't a distinctive sensation of milk flow. But when the milk supply does come in, it can be quite dramatic. The breasts seem flooded with milk and may become engorged or hard and uncomfortable.