How to stop breastfeeding

[HettyMeg]

How can I stop breastfeeding? I've just recovered from a terrible bout of mastitis involving a hospital stay, borderline sepsis and IV antibiotics. I expressed while in hospital and have continued to express every few hours in order to clear the infection but I now want to stop breastfeeding. Is it a case of simply cutting out one expressing session every few days?

I'm sorry you've been through all that-sounds awful!

Yes basically just cut down a little each day while being perceptive about any sore areas, watch out for your breast becoming over-full, hard or heavy. It will be different for each mother, but cutting one "feed" every few days often works.

Stopping more swiftly could lead to mastitis again and is also linked to a dip in mood due to hormonal changes, so be kind to yourself during this time too 💐

How are you getting on @HettyMeg? sorry for what you’ve been through. I’m in the process of having to stop BFing at almost 6 months, and struggling to figure out how to cut feeding/pumping down and keep mastitis at bay. Every time I drop a session I struggle with blocked ducts :(. Hope you’ve been making progress.

@JAR1981 I've stopped expressing/hand expressing now, mainly because my infection unfortunately came back - I don't think it was due to me cutting down, rather the antibiotics didn't quite blitz it and I ended up with an abscess which I'm still dealing with. But I think my approach worked quite well as had no issues on my "good side" - I just gradually cut down expressing, about a minute at a time, and then moved to just hand expressing, and then cut that down to only doing it when engorged. Good luck with it, I agree with what a poster above has said - it can make you feel quite down because of the hormonal change and I have had quite a low mood. Be kind to yourself. Also ring La Leche League if needing more advice as they were really good with me.

Thanks for your advice @HettyMeg and sorry to hear you’re still having issues, I hope you manage to get back to normal soon and the infection clears. Yes I’m ready for the hormonal changes, I’m already feeling very emotional about stopping but know it’s the right thing for me and the LO in the long run x