[sewathomemama]

there is a lot of information out there about breast changes in your first pregnancy or in an otherwise not-nursing person, but i have had a hard time finding info on the effects of pregnancy on nursing breasts. i'm positive many of you have done the pregnant-while-nursing gig, so please tell me what your experience is & why there isn't any pregnancy info out there for lactating mothers. (strange, isn't it? i guess they figure we've been there, so we should know! lol)
is it the same? sensitive or enlarged breasts? more or less painful?

fyi, i am still nursing at 24 months pp, but i'm not currently pregnant. i've been burning to learn about this for ages.

 

[ChetMC]

Hilary Flowers
Adventures in Tandem Nursing

Generally, there is a huge range in terms of what women experience while nursing during pregnancy. It is quite common for a child to wean when mom becomes pregnant, but many babies and toddlers keep nursing right through.

 

[MountainMamaGC]

From what i have read, your nipples may get sore and you milk may change back to colostrum. A lot of women start to dry up about half way through the pregnancy due to hormonal changes. Some women keep comfort nursing inspite of drying up and some dont.

 

[La Sombra]

I'm surprised you didn't encounter information about this, although I guess now that I think about it there WASN'T information in some of my books on breast feeding. Well, when I got pregnant while still nursing my then-13 month old, I wondered this very thing. I'm pretty sure I just did a google search to start with. Also, LLL has information on their website and in their handbook. I'll try to find links for you.

Here's what I learned. First, as the earlier poster said, there's a real range. From what I gathered, the older your nursing child is when you get pregnant, the more likely they are to wean--though this is by no means a certainty. But what often happens is in like the second trimester your milk supply may diminish greatly. Also, the salt concentration increases. These things may dissuade your lo from nursing. Others keep on going despite these factors. Another variable is increased sensitivity in your breasts--some moms actually find nursing while pregnant quite painful and may even try to wean their lo.s to avoid the pain. But some women report little change in breast sensitivity.

I guess like everything else pregnancy-related, it all depends on the woman!

 

[Mrsboyko]

For me, DD was 19 months and only nursing about 4 times a day when i got pregnant. Early on, my boobs shrank. It was disapointing, I figured I had hit hte motherload WRT boobs, but it was the opposite! It was no more sensative than normal till about 10 weeks. Then it satrted to hurt. Then it hurt worse around 14 weeks. I cut her back to once a day at that point.

When I finally saw a healthy baby with all parts and such at 18 weeks, I decided I had had enough of the pain and weaned her of the last nursing. i just couldn't make our last memories of our wonderful nursing relationship that of constant pain and resentment, KWIM? She didn't fight it and she was nearly 2 at that time, so we were done. She asked once a day for about 4 days, then once every 2-3 days for another week, then not again.

At about 22 weeks I realized I couldn't express any milk. I don't know how long it had been gone for. Now at 25 weeks i have colostrum again. I have asked her if she wanteed to nurse and while she did pretend for a minute, she just doesn't remember how any more. Kinda sad really.

 

[Bee21]

All mamas are different, but here is my experience. My dd was 18 mos when I got pg. Nursing became quite painful around 10 weeks, and gradually got worse. I compare it to her mouth feeling like sandpaper on my nipples, ouch! My milk changed to colostrum around 15 weeks and she lost interest in nursing by 20 weeks. I was grateful as it was still very painful.