As I sit here nursing Connor...

[2boyzmama]

I'm reminded of something my Pediatrician said to me early in my pregnancy. He voiced concern over me nursing through a pregnancy, saying that some recent research has suggested it could lead to pre-term labor and/or low birth weight baby (I asked for the research, he couldn't provide it to me).

Here I sit over 40 weeks (my other two pregnancies were both 38 weekers) with a, um, LARGE uterus (my other two babies were LGA). Check out my belly at www.blockboys.blogspot.com if you haven't seen it yet

Guess I proved him wrong, huh???

[TIFF4NY]

That's great!!

[susanl1202]

That concern was voiced to me too in my last pregnancy - I gave birth to a 8lb 12oz healthy boy at 39w 5d. I loved having a nursing toddler and newborn, the toddler was such a help with engorgement. I started this pregnancy tandem nursing but both have since weaned, I'm a little concerned about nursing again after a gap (only 4 months, but still....)

Funnily enough our bodies are clever enough to nurse and make a baby, it's just deemed a bit unusual in our society because the medical profession don't see it often enough.

[MichelleAnnette]

I also nursed through my pregnancy and gave birth to a 9 lb 7 oz baby at 40w4d.

[2boyzmama]

All the research I read said that in a normal healthy pregnancy, breastfeeding is safe. Also in the event that I WAS nutrient deprived (unusual in America), my body would have dried up my milk before it sacrificed the fetus.

See...a woman's body is SMART like that!

Why more drs don't believe that, I don't know.

Oh, and I nursed Ian through week 28 of Connor's pregnancy, and still delivered at 38+5 and 8.5 pound baby.

[confustication]

Funny, if that's the case, how on earth did I make it to 41 weeks 3 days?

I think that when you're aware of properly nourishing yurself throughout a pregnancy, and while preastfeedng, the risk would be quite low, and as you said, I think the milk supply would dwindle before the fetus was harmed.

Then again, I also know that if I don't keep up my caloric intake and overall nutrition, my milk supply dwindles anyway...