To think breastfeeding does shrink your boobs

[ScarletLouise]

I may be wrong but 1st baby, didn't breastfeed long at all due to PND (2 weeks max) and boobs stayed the same, pretty unaffected by pregnancy as well.

2nd baby, pregnancy didn't seem to have too much of an effect on boobs. This time breastfed exclusively for 12 months and now I have stopped I've realised my breasts are at least 2 cup sizes smaller than before this baby. My old bras are massive on me, I used to have a lovely cleavage which non-existent now. They're just small and saggy as well now.

I really suspect breastfeeding for so long changed them? But everywhere says it's a massive myth and that it is pregnancy, not breastfeeding, that causes the changes.

Feeling a bit sorry for myself as I look rubbish in a lot of my old dresses and my boobs were one of the nice things about me that I actually liked.

Where are the bra interventionists? I’m feeling like I need to send out a bat signal for them.

Bra people, you are needed here.

Mine got bigger after each baby and never went back down!
All bodies are different.

After I stopped breastfeeding DC2 I ended up with boobs like sad spaniels ears, however they recovered and I went back to normal boob size and shape. Think it took about a year for them to Go back to normal.

I was absolutely devastated when I thought I would have to live with saggy deflated boobs in my twenties.

Both my DC were EBF for 14 months each.

My boobs got far bigger with each pregnancy. I was a 32C when I fell pregnant with DD. Now, 21 years later, I am 34GG. Definitely no spaniels ears or shrinkage going on here

I was 30b to start with. Went up to 36g pregnant (I put on a LOT of weight). Settled now at 32d. I breastfed for 3 years in total, so not the case for me.

It's a genetic lottery. My mum had lots of stretch marks, saggy boobs and her face fell victim to gravity at an early age. I've got the stretch marks, the saggy boobs and at 27 I'm just waiting for my face to start falling... Being chubby helps

I breastfed two - one for 12 months and one for 14 months - and my tits are now round my ankles. I went from a G to a D/E but they're not full and high any more. They're kinda flat and... rubbish.

I started leaking colostrum at 16 weeks pregnant, but my breasts didn’t increase dramatically in size until my milk came in, then I went from a 28C/D to a 28GG. They settled at a 28E but I stopped feeding 21 mo Dd last week and they are deflating rapidly. I wouldn’t mind them being smaller, but it looks like they are going to be vile saggy little flaps soon. So reassuring to see your post @fuzzywuzzy I’m in my early twenties and really don’t want granny boobs for the rest of my life, I can wait a year for improvement.

I don't know... I bf ds1 for nearly 2 years and my boobs were slightly bigger and better I think than they were before after! I bf, although not exclusively ds1 for just 4ish months and my boobs look like crap now, maybe a second baby thing I don't know!

Have you lost a lot of weight since stopping?

I think gaining and loosing weight causes more changes than the breastfeeding.

I've breastfeed 3 babies, all exclusively for 6 months then obviously with solids after, stopping completely at 12 months, then 8 months (due to a totally unexpected, unplanned for emergency hospital admission and strong drugs), then 14 months. My breasts are a lot bigger now, but I'm also fatter generally than before my first pregnancy :o 36c to 38F

I think it must do all that going up and down
!!

I breastfed DS for 5 years. Towards the end, when he was only nursing a couple of times a week, my boobs went really small and flappy feeling. About a year or so after we stopped completely they were totally back to normal. Now (3 years on), they look, feel, and measure exactly the same as before I got pregnant.

I breastfed three and they were sad little things for a while... then returned to their pre pregnancy size plus a bit more.

Pregnant with no 4 - fingers crossed the pattern continues

I was a lovely 32C and now after one child I would be lucky to be 32A

36 c before pregnancy
38 e (long) after twins and breastfeeding for 11months

Also didn't lose any weight due to bf😑

I breastfed for 18 months and was thrilled to actually have boobs during that time. They went back to their normal size/shape after I stopped feeding (at 30AA I suppose they could hardly get smaller!)

I breastfed for a year with both kids and I'm the same bra size (and weight) now (3.5 years PP) as I've always been. Went from 34B to 36C/D and back again.

Everyone's different.

I've gone from an AA to an E

I was a 30E pre-pregnancy and I’m a 32G now. I weigh 4kg less overall, but my boobs definitely haven’t shrunk. I wish they had, I feel unsexy and matronly at this chest size.

I think some women are what I call "stubbornly flat chested" or "stubbornly big-boobed".
I think this cohort revert back to their original size, no matter what.

A few very small boobed women I know went back to less than their original size and had saggy boobs after BFing.

I also know women with big boobs who had reductions, only for their boobs to grow back to their original size afterwards.

28GG/H to a 30B.

And I think that B is comprised exclusively of empty skin I actually don't mind as I got back ache and struggled to find clothes that I liked the fit of before. Now I just don't like being naked, and I can live with that!

Give it time. I breastfed DT for two years. My breasts were smaller when I stopped but did go back pre-pregnancy size after around six months. As mentioned above maybe try the bra intervention method and buy yourself some nice new bras to give you a boost in the meantime - bravissimo do measuring like this if you don't want to do yourself.

I breastfed DS for a year. Boobs ballooned during pregnancy and first 2-3 months of breastfeeding then gradually reduced down again. I stopped two months ago and they look pretty much as they did before thankfully - quite full and reasonably perky for a 32E. My old bras still fit. One bonus though is my nipples are darker and pointier - they're definitely an improvement on the old pale pink saucers!

Just goes to show everyone is different. It's probably more to do with genes than whether you bf.

Mine went from quite big breastfeeding, to tiny, back to around my pre-pregnancy size and volume.

I have been everything from a 30D (pre-kids), to a 28A (after stopping breastfeeding), up as high as a 32F (pregnant) and then back down to a 32C/D, with various other sizes in between. Three DCs.