Breast feeding and heavy exercise

[qsack]

Hi
Does anyone have advice? DS2 is due any day. I've done a lot of running in the past but stopped competively when got pregnant with DS1 in Oct 2002. I'm thinking about doing a marathon in April 06 but know that it will mean a lot of hard training (i've done two marathons before) and wonder what effect hard exercise has on breast milk supply? i fed DS1 for 10months and plan to do something similar this time, or atleast for 8. I've also heard somewhere that it's best to exercise just after you've fed as if you do it just beforehand the milk can taste odd. anyone else heard this?

I kept jogging all the way thru both my pregnancies & then brfed fine afterwards, but I wasn't pushing to my limit, either.

I think the short answer is you will just have to try it and see. Take things carefully. In theory, if you push yourself very hard, the milk could be high in lactic acid which (in theory) some babies might not like. Actually, when they looked at real babies of real hard exercising mothers, the babes weren't put off the taste of the milk at all, and the babies didn't have weight gain problems, either. You aren't likely to up your mileage & effort very much until your baby is on solids, so I (not that I'm an expert, but anyway) would be very surprised if you noticed any effect at all.

The real reason to feed just before you go running is for your own comfort, btw.

I've had some experience with this - I run a bit, and had no problems with supply or taste.

But when DS1 was 6 months, before I started running again, I did a two-day intensive rock climbing course. I was not in good enough shape for it, it was very very hard, and I was absolutely destroyed as a result. Every muscle sore, that kind of thing.

I'm pretty sure it affected my milk, as DS1 was a bit unsettled. It was just for a couple of days, though.

As long as you build up slowly, I'm sure you'll be fine. A friend I had when DS1 was small started running again fairly seriously when her daughter was six weeks, and she was breastfeeding with no problems.

Hi Qsack hope this helps. Depends on your definition of "hard"exercise and how quickly you intend to get to that level - I guess that with the marathon a year from now you'd probably to look at getting into light training (lowish weekly mileage) until around September this year, then up from then onwards through the Winter ? research and studies suggest that breastmilk is only affected (taste and supply) when exercise levels are above the aerobic threshold (so when you're working anerobically) which with long sustained mileage you shouldn't be anyway. Sometimes the odd taste of milk is more about mum sweating and therfore smelling different than about the actual change in milk......Good luck with the training...and with juggling a new born baby !

Brilliant, thanks for all the advice everyone. Steppy1, you're right interms of when i'd do what i.e not really hard training till sept / oct time and plan to build up slowly. All this of course is if i can manage to juggle toddler, new born and family time with training!

Good luck with the training qsack!