Breastfeeding - should I give up?

[memory505]

I've got a dilemma over whether or not to give up BF.

I had a bad back/pelvic pain during pregnancy caused by the relaxin hormone but it improved towards the end of pregnancy. However, the problem returned after giving birth to DD and has turned into a serious problem now. I am finding basic movements like walking or turning very difficult and with a baby and a lively 4 year old, I'm getting very frustrated that I am having to rely on my DH so much. He's busy with work and I feel like a useless mother who can't do the most basic of things.

I've started seeing an osteopath and it is helping a bit but I'm still in a lot of pain. The osteopath mentioned that when BF stops these sorts of problems clear up. Has anyone had a similar experience?

BF is going well and I was planning to carry on until around 6 months (DD is 4 months now) but if stopping would clear up the pain I would definitely stop now. But, I don't want to stop and find it makes no difference. I know I will miss it when I stop and if I'm still in pain and I'm having to deal with making up feeds and sterilising etc it will make life even more difficult.

So if anyone has had problems with pain with joints etc I would really like to hear your exp about whether stopping BF helped/not helped the pain. Thanks x

No personal experience but there was a thread about this recently. Iirc there is little evidence for what your osteopath says (or rather it will clear up eveni if you continue to bf) but i wouldn't count that as gospel. You could search for the thread. I think it was called "looking for balanced info about the negatives of bf" but i'm not sure about the word negative...

Either way the joy of mn is that someone who does know will be along soon. Good luck!

When I saw a physio with PGP during my last pregnancy she also informed me that BFing could prolong relaxin-induced problems. I didn't research this independently though.

I was extremely fortunate in that my PGP went away within 24 hours of giving birth (am BFing), but I think if it had continued I'd have given up BF by now in an effort to solve it - it's bloody agonising! You have my sympathies.

My pelvic girdle pain gradually improved in the 2 years after birth. Stopping breastfeeding at 15 months had no apparent effect on the rate of improvement.

FWIW the main thing that improved it after both pregnancies was weight loss (Paul McKenna worked for me).

Memory505 - C&P my reply from an earlier discussion

The hormone responsible for the softening of ligaments in pregnancy is relaxin.

It is released on ovulation in the corpus luteum (something that is normally suppressed during early lactation - average for return of periods is 14m post-partum I believe) in pregnancy (by the placenta and decidua (womb lining in pregnancy)) and by the prostate (if you have a prostate you are almost certainly guaranteed not to be lactating).

If you have periods and are breastfeeding then you may have PGP/SPD/other ligament pain at ovulation but that would be down to the hormones from the ovulation not from the bfing.

I definitely got flare ups of SPD pain after DD1's birth (and I was told not to bf by a HCA on the Maternity ward) as I got my periods back at 9 weeks pp due to bottle feeding for 1st 8 weeks and every time I was mid cycle I would get a few days of pain and tenderness in my pelvis. How ever with DD2/DD3 I didn't get my period back until 11m pp and I guess my body had had longer to heal/repair it's self. DD1 was bf directly from 8w-42m and DD2/3 are bfing now.

For the biologically minded further reading here

Link to that thread

HTH

Thanks for all your replies. I think I've made a decision now to keep going and seeing this: www.pelvicpartnership.org.uk/practical-suggestions/feeding.html made me realise it's probably not going to get better if I give up.

Thanks again