Breastfeeding whilst pregnant - really painful - tiktok if you're around can you help?

[WittgensteinsBunny]

I'm bf'ing my 16 mo dd and I'm 15 weeks pregnant. The last week has been painful but tonight has been agonising. It's really heavy (sort of feels engorged but different), the nipple was aching before she latched, her latch nearly made me cry and then when she'd had a massive feed it felt much better. I've no idea what's going on, bf'ing has never really hurt before, only when I had a cracked nipple at the start and there's no damage to the nipples. I don't want to give up, dd really isn't ready. Can anybody tell me what's happening? Is it just hormones; is my supply going?

I'm not an expert (and I'm sure one will be along in a minute), but is there any chance it might be thrush? I've had it a few times and it felt exactly how you describe.

Thrush is more common in pregnancy - I'd get that checked. I shouldn't think you'd be feeling things from pregnancy itself in relation to BF yet, it tends to come later in the 2nd trimester.

Thanks everyone. I'd better arrange to get it looked at. I hadn't considered anything like thrush :(

Just be prepared for a slightly confused/hostile reaction to you still BF a 16mo. You never know, the GP might be fine about it but sometimes they aren't. If it is thrush you need treatment both for your nipples and a cream for her mouth. You can look for white patches inside her mouth to see if she has it but either way, you'll reinfect each other if you don't treat both.

I can only speak from personal experience but I BFed my almost-2 year old throughout pregnancy and for the first 18 weeks-ish, it was toe curlingly painful at times. Not thrush and nothing to do with supply; my nipples were just hypersensitive and it took a little while longer than I hoped for those raging hormones that usually trouble me in the first trimester to settle down. It did get better though. For me personally I just had to grit my teeth for a little while. Hope your situation improves soon!

I've had a look in DD's mouth; I can't see any white spots. I've also had a look a nipple thrush on google images ! and I don't think my boobs resemble any of those pictures. I have my doubts about the gp too. They were a bit when I told them I was pregnant to get logged on the system and mentioned I was still bf'ing. Her response was, "well that just goes to show it's not a great form of contraceptive is it?" er, we were TTC, not using bfing as a contraceptive! Would a lll councillor be able to tell if it's thrush?

Have to be tomorrow, sorry.

Bunny, this sounds painful :(

I doubt it's thrush.

Pain on bf when pregnant is not all that unusual - but it does appear to be temporary for most women.

I am not sure why it should happen - skin generally is more sensitive in pg, and it could be that.

The breasts undergo changes during pg - the actual structure of the breasts and blood supply undergo some changes, and I wonder if all that 'activity' is sorta 'clashing' with milk making, so it's a bit crowded in there (I am speculating, only).

I hope it goes soon for you. Mild painkillers might be more effective than the hassle of thrush meds (esp when it is probably not thush.....though do get that checked out if you think it might be).

Thanks Tik Tok. I'm going to keep an eye on the thrush symptoms, in both me and dd, but I just don't think either of us has got it. Sounds like it's just a pregnancy thing. It does vary in painfulness through the day and it isn't consistent so I guess it would make sense to be some sort of growing pain. Ah the joys!

I had this during the first trimester - DD would have been about 13-14 months. I never really had bf pain before and it was horrible. I also got quite bad nursing aversion.

DD weaned pretty much during the 2nd trimester - my milk pretty much disappeared gradually so it was less traumatic than I thought. That said, it still made me sad as I have breast hypoplasia and we had been through so much to get past a year.

I breastfed during pregnancy and it was quite painful. My nipples were just very sensitive, worse when DD first latched on and the first trimester was the most difficult. At 28wks my milk dried up and dry nursing was agony for me (and disappointing for DD) so we stopped.