Breastfeeding Myths!

I thought I'd start a thread about the myths surrounding breastfeeding, many of which discourage women from even trying.

As it's Breastfeeding Awareness week this week 19-25th June, now seems like a good time to start it

The first one I'm going to mention is: Saggy Boobs.

Sadly many women actually don't even attempt to breastfeed as they've heard repeatedly either from friends, family, online forums, the media, etc, that breast feeding makes your breasts sag. This is completely untrue and in studies done the one thing that has never been attributed to saggy breasts (breast-ptosis) is in fact breastfeeding!

Some facts:

The majority of women undergo some breast changes during pregnancy. These changes include breast enlargement, increased blood flow, the development of small lumps ('Montgomery’s tubercles') on the areola. These changes happen so as to prepare the breasts for breastfeeding a baby after birth.

Many women put on weight during pregnancy and additional fat stores are laid down in the breasts. This adds to their increase in size. Both of these changes will result in a stretching of the skin, and stretch marks may appear.

In the days and hours following birth, the breasts begin to make milk. This will happen whether you intend to breastfeed or not. A few days after birth the milk (usually) ‘comes in’ and many women experience some engorgement. Their breasts become full and the skin may feel tight and stretched, (breastfeeding is a great treatment for this).

If you don’t breastfeed, the breasts gradually stop producing milk and the engorgement subsides on it’s own as the body realises no milk is required. The milk-making machinery then shrinks back in a process called ‘breast involution’. The skin (which has been stretched as explained above) may or may not ‘snap back’ into shape.

The additional weight gain/ breast enlargement caused by pregnancy may have also stretched the ligaments supporting the breast.

If a woman smokes, this can affect the ability of her skin to recover from changes (such as those brought on by pregnancy). This is because smoking reduces the levels of collagen and elastin in the body.

If a woman continues to breastfeed her breast involution will be delayed and will take place when the child weans.

Age matters – the older we get, the less collagen and elastin we naturally have in our skin (hence wrinkles!), and so with age everyone sags a bit. It’s a fact of life.

The number of pregnancies you’ve had can also contribute to breast sagging. The associated weight gain/ weight loss and breast enlargement/ breast involution is to blame. Basically, the more pregnancies you have the more you’re putting your body through & the harder it will find it to recover.

The bigger your breasts are anyway, the more likely they are to head south at some point. This is because of gravity and the weight of the breast pulling on the supporting ligaments.

There is evidence to show that wearing a bra actually weakens the ligaments supporting the breast (as they are not being used) and therefore contributes to breast ptosis.

If you lose a lot of weight, your skin may struggle to shrink back once the fat has gone – this can leave your breasts looking ‘empty’. Again, the supporting ligaments may have been stretched in the past.

Breastfeeding has not been found to be a cause of breast-ptosis.

From my own personal experience after 2 years and 2 months of breastfeeding, to date, my boobs aren't particularly saggy. I developed some stretch marks on them during my first pregnancy, but I also developed some on them during puberty when my boobs grew very quickly, almost literally overnight, and if my underlying muscles aren't toned then they may droop slightly. This was the case before I even had children, or had breastfed and I was only a size 10 at most, so had nothing to do with being overweight either

I hope this thread can be informative and helpful. Feel free to dispel your own breastfeeding myths here, and I'll be back with more over the week and longer

Happy ladies

This is the one that bugs me most and the one you hear most often......

Many women do not produce enough milk.
Not true! The vast majority of women produce more than enough milk. Indeed, an overabundance of milk is common. Most babies that gain too slowly, or lose weight, do so not because the mother does not have enough milk, but because the baby does not get the milk that the mother has. The usual reason that the baby does not get the milk that is available is that he is poorly latched onto the breast. This is why it is so important that the mother be shown, on the first day, how to latch a baby on properly, by someone who knows what they are doing.

The one I hate the most is that if the baby isn't gaining weight well, the mother's milk is low quality.

Another one that is not true. Studies have shown that even malnourished women are able to produce quality milk in sufficient quantity to support a growing infant. Most cases of low weight gain are down to insufficient milk intake or a underlying health problem in the baby.

That you have to drink milk to make milk- friend was seriously told this by her HV!!!

That you have to drink milk to make milk- friend was seriously told this by her HV!!!

Great thread.

Fantastic idea for a thread

To confirm what Davina said, my breasts sagged after i had Sasha, i didn't her at all The other 3 have all been and i've not noticed any further sagging!

Another that makes me is "I couldn't keep up with him/her as he/she was such a big baby". Women who for 6 weeks, 6 months etc will eventually have big babies too, but they produce enough milk for them! Just because a baby is big at birth, doesn't mean you don't produce enough to satisfy them. Supply and demand is just that, if they need more milk they will signal your body to make it. It may take a few days to catch up but you will get there! I hear it alot at 2 weeks/6 weeks/12 weeks/16 weeks too, when the growth spurts kick in

Excellent thread!

That you have to drink milk to make milk- friend was seriously told this by her HV!!!

but that also made me a bit

Now this isn't bf related but pregnancy related. I was browsing another forum recently on a search for something and came across this wee gem "Whilst pregnant ladies, no nipple tweeking as it causes cancer" I did complain to the forum but got no response