Breastfeeding while pregnant

[Stretch]

Just found out that I am pregnant!

I am bf DS, who's 8 months. We are BLW but he's not really taking much. He still bfs constantly day and night.

Is me being pregnant going to hinder bf DS? I really want to continue feeding him for as long as possible, although tandom feeding is quite a scary thought!!

The only difference so far is that my nipples are starting to hurt again, like when newborn feeds.

Also, I've always wondered what happens to the milk when the baby is born, do they get the full-fat milk? Where does the colostrum go??

I'm sure I'll be back with more bf questions as time goes on! We still haven't had to deal with the biting issue as he hasn't cut a tooth yet!!!

I'm afraid I don't know, Stretch, but thought I would bump to help ...

I know quite a few people who have bf while pregnant so suspect it is fine (and a wonderful thing to boot!) but I also have one friend who was told to stop (when her DS was 12 mths) because of high oestrogen levels in her milk when she was pg?

Hopefully someone sensible will come along in a minute!

Thank you for bumping!

Have to go and do school run in a bit, so will bump later!

I have just bumped a different thread on this subject from a couple of days ago. HTH.

To answer your specific questions everything 'resets' in pregnancy. So your current milk turns into colostrum and when the new baby is born they have everything as any other newborn does. If they are being tandem fed the only difference might be volume. The only difference might be if you always restricted the newborn to one breast and one to the toddler. Over time the fat content may vary in the milk in each breast as they would send different messages in their feeding styles.

I breastfed while pregnant and it's clear lots of other people on this site have too. I don't know of the high oestrogen issue the previous poster mentioned. I've never heard of that.

The biggest problem could be if you find your supply dips dramatically. Most pregnant mums notice some supply reduction but to what extent varies. You'll just have to see how it goes. My supply was at its lowest point just before the colostrum arrived at around 16 weeks but everyone is a bit different. A minority of women notice no difference in their supply.

I breastfed nearly all the way through pregnancy (I had been planning to tandem feed, but ds self-weaned just a month or so before his sister was born). I had no problems at all, other than about a week or so of tender nipples at around the 5 month mark (I don't know if it's true but someone suggested to me that it could have been the time when the milk changed to colostrum ready for the coming baby.) I had no supply issues at all.

Actually, now I think about it, my only problem was finding positions to feed that weren't uncomfortable and didn't cramp the expanding bump! Also, I got pregnant whilst still breastfeeding exclusively and without having had a period at all post partum (no period now since 2006 and still counting!!)

Regarding the teeth and biting issue - ds only bit me once when his teeth had only newly come through. I changed the way he latched on and it never happened again.

Thank you both. Will look at the other thread.