To ask for your thoughts on extended breastfeeding?

[awmamma]

Catching up on Teen Mom UK and watching the bit about Charlie telling Shannon it was weird to still be breastfeeding her 2.5 year old.

Is it really that weird?

Honestly, if people want to believe they can breastfeed for years and their boobs ping back to how they were before, fine.

Err because I don't believe it. I am allowed to not believe it you know

Well yes, but when there’s actual research (do you know what that is?) to the contrary of your belief it just makes you look a bit thick doesn’t it?

MissB83

@TabbyMumzwhy are you so interested in the state of women's breasts?! Bit weird.

Why is anyone on here? It's a thread about breastfeeding.....

Well yes, but when there’s actual research (do you know what that is?) to the contrary of your belief it just makes you look a bit thick doesn’t it?
No. Not when the research is done to encourage breastfeeding. And what did they do? Go round measuring people's breasts before and after breastfeeding?

I think breastfeeding did make my breasts saggy. Also though it may be unpopular I find the idea of BF any child over two a bit weird tbh
Thank you @whateverhappenstheremore

You can collect all the anacdata you like but it's just not backed up by facts. There are few studies that have been done but those that have been done found it made no difference.

www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/11/071101170723.htm

Smoking causes more sagging than breastfeeding.

For the record, I wouldn't give a fuck if it did cause sagging, I'd still breastfeed my child. What's best for them comes over vanity every time.

@TabbyMumz I don't think the majority of contributors are interested in saggy breasts! Maybe more interested in the socio/political, health or other implications of breastfeeding... not all being quite so shallow.

Honestly, if people want to believe they can breastfeed for years and their boobs ping back to how they were before, fine

I DONT believe this!! This is not what people are saying!
You’re right, they probably won’t ‘ping’ back afterwards years of breastfeeding. Because of our actual PREGNANCIES! They likely won’t ‘ping’ back if you have a baby and never breastfeed either!
This is hard work.

Here it is in very simple terms:

Pregnancy - can cause breasts to sag
Breastfeeding - hides the sagginess for as long as breastfeeding continues
Breastfeeding stops - sagging happens

And the sagging can also happen if you never ever put your infant to your breast and bottle feed from day 1. And it can happen if you wean at 3 months, or 6 months, or 7 years!

"Please calmly link ti research undertaken to prove this. And no, “Pamela at no 7 breastfed foryearsand her tits are ruined” isn’t research.".. .

I realise some people on here rely on research before forming their opinions. I don't. You can find any sort of research if you really want to put you mind to it . Most research that would tell you breasts are not affected at all by breastfeeding is clearly, in my opinion, done by bodies that have an agenda to improve breastfeeding.

I suppose the key point is that you could only have a causation/correlation argument if you could find someone who had breastfed without having been pregnant? Rare but I suppose possible in theory.

So if @TabbyMumz can find one, maybe they can report back the findings to us? (If anyone still cares...).

And the sagging can also happen if you never ever put your infant to your breast and bottle feed from day 1. And it can happen if you wean at 3 months, or 6 months, or 7 years!
Yes, but I don't believe as much. To me it makes sense that long term breastfeeding does have an affect on boobs. You believe differently. That's fine by me.

tabby I totally get what you are saying. I mean if two people have different opinions there is literally nothing you could possibly do to work out which one is right is there?

I had that problem the other day because I think ice should be more dense that water because its a solid and so should sink in water, and my DH said it should float because he has heard of these things called icebergs. Well! I've never seen any icebergs so I told him we will just have to agree to disagree and everyone's entitled to their opinions.....

If only there was some method for discovering who was right...some scientific method.....

But alas no. We will have to go to our graves not knowing.

ps. Did they actually measure people's boobs? - yes, yes they did. And they took scans of them to find out what coposition they have and EVERYTHING.

The problem with relying on your common sense in such cases, is that common sense is often wrong.

Its common sense that babies would be safer sleeping on their fronts - but they aren't. The reason we know they aren't is not because anyone came up with a brilliant new idea for why babies would be safer sleeping on their backs...no. We know they are safer on their backs because we looked at the death rates for babies on fronts and backs and compared them.

It may or may not be common sense that extended BFing has a greater impact on boob saggyness, but the comparison of people who did and didn't BF for different lengths of time says that extended Bfing does NOT in fact have a greater impact on boob saggyness.

If research has been conducted by people with an agenda to improve breastfeeding rates, it doesn’t mean that the research is wrong.

"Please tell me you’ve not reproduced."

How rude. Always love it when people get challenged they come back with a personal attack. Kind of let's you down really. I might have said I don't believe boobs magically ping back after years of breastfeeding, but no need for the personal attack really, eh? We can still be pleasant?

If only there was some method for discovering who was right...some scientific method.....

But alas no. We will have to go to our graves not knowing.

If research has been conducted by people with an agenda to improve breastfeeding rates, it doesn’t mean that the research is wrong

Absolutely.

Conversely to peddle a negative viewpoint due to your agenda, and dress opinion up as fact is absolutely wrong and should be addressed.

ethelfleda

If research has been conducted by people with an agenda to improve breastfeeding rates, it doesn’t mean that the research is wrong.

True, but it kind of makes me a bit suspicious that it might not be entirely right.

Kind of let's you down really

Yeah....whereas “I know better than WHO and countless years of scientific research” really shows you up to be a right on person

Conversely to peddle a negative viewpoint due to your agenda, and dress opinion up as fact is absolutely wrong and should be addressed.

I don't have an agenda...Just an opinion. People are allowed to say their opinion. Research might not be fact.

Yeah....whereas “I know better than WHO and countless years of scientific research” really shows you up to be a right on person

Yeah, except I haven't said that you have.