Could fenugreek boost breast milk?
When you start breastfeeding, you may worry you’re not producing enough milk.3 Fenugreek, an aromatic Mediterranean herb, has been used for centuries to aid lactation and is still the most commonly taken herb to help boost breast milk today.4 In 2011, a small study by Gazi University in Turkey found new mothers who drank herbal tea containing fenugreek produced significantly more breast milk on the third day after giving birth compared with mothers who took a placebo or nothing at all.5
Another small study by Iranian researchers in 2015 followed breastfeeding mothers who drank either tea containing fenugreek seed or black tea three times a day, over four weeks.6 At the end of the study, the babies whose mothers drank fenugreek tea showed more significant growth than those whose mothers drank black tea, suggesting that fenugreek has an effect on breast milk sufficiency.