does breastfeding whilst pregnant cause miscarriage? please help

[lyndseyann]

hi, i am currently 13 weeks pregnant and i have just had m 1st scan, i have a 14month old ds who i am still happily breastfeeding.i mentioned this to the midwife as i was about to get my 1st scan and she told me that i must stop immediatley as i will harm my unborn baby, and that i could have already caused a miscarriage i was then terrified that when she put the scanner on my belly than something was going to be wrong ( thank the lord he looked big and healthy!!) so i asked why this was dangerous and she said it will cause early labour. i asked for some advice on weaning and told her i had previously tried putting my ds to bed with a cup of milk,so she suggested i express instead of feeding directly..........surely this makes no difference as i am still lactating?!?! but she was adamant that i must stop now.
please please advise me on this as everytime i contine to feed my ds i am terrified that i am causing serious harm to my wee bump

You can BF whilst pg, there is a bf whilst pg support thread in the BF section on here.

My HV told me last week that mc is NOT caused by BF in a healthy pg.

she is wrong

i bf all the way through my second pg

I think the stress this midwife has caused you with her ignorant comments are more harmful then bfing while pregnant!

You are not causing any harm to your baby. I bf until I was three months pregnant, and the baby was fine. I only stopped because I felt the time was right.

You really don't need to stop bfing. Plenty of women have bf through pregnancy and have even gone on to tandem feed the toddler and the newborn.

Absolute twaddle from the midwife. She may be suggesting that nipple stimulation causes uterine contractions - which it does if you do both sides at once AND you're overdue and ready to go. And even then, you will find a million heavily pregnant, overdue desperate women who've been twiddling their nips or double pumping for hours at a time to try to start labour in vain.

The fact that she then suggested you could express the milk says to me she just has a weird hangup, because as you rightly say it would make no difference how the milk got out of your breast.

thanks everyone for replying you have eased my mind already- i had heard of tandem feeding before so i thought at the back of mind that it must be ok to contine feeding.
mrsboring my ds likes to twiddle one and feed from the other so i'll encorage that if we are still feeding in 6 months time
thanks again

i got preg with both my boys while bf-ing and fed until 3 months with ds1 and right up til 38 weeks with ds2.

IT DOES NOT HARM THE BABY

your mw is an idiot and a dangerous one at that as she clearly doesn't know shit about bf-ing

Of course you can BF while pg. If you think about all the women in the world in countries where it's the cultural norm to BF for much longer than in the UK, it must go on all the while.

I BF til I was around four months pg with DC2 and only stopped because my nips got too sore! My MW didn't bat an eyelid when I told her.

lyndseyann - when you have calmed down, will you think about making a formal complaint about this midwife?

She is using shockingly wrong information - this is very bad practice indeed and her supervisor should know about it and arrange for some training. Write to the director of midwifery, name the midwife and give the date and time of your scan. Yes, you will get her into trouble - she deserves it. Explain how distressed you were, and that you had to contact an internet talkboard for information - and you can also say how daft she is to say you must stop now and express instead.

www.kellymom.com/nursingtwo/articles/bfpregnancy_safety.html is a link to a referenced article about bf and pregnancy.

Please write. She will be scaring the bejabers out of other mothers if you don't.

Wow that midwife is seriously uninformed and is in desperate need of training.
I agree with Tiktok - PLEASE write and inform someone of her ignorance. Thankfully you knew where to try and find out the truth but the next mum might not.
I bfed throughout my pregnancy and my midwives didn't blink (actually got a couple of positive comments).

No is not true my cousin has 5 kids she breastfed whilst pregnant with all of them, also though, it shows it does not work forever as a contraceptive

Agree with Tik re: making a formal complaint, but is this the midwife attached to your GP surgery or a midwife at the hospital? If a community midwife, could you transfer to another one? (And then make the complaint)

From personal experience, I know how difficult it can be to make an official complaint against someone and then have to deal with them for a specified amount of time.

But if it's the midwife at the hospital, you absolutely need to report this woman immediately. It isn't the she is a bit misinformed; her advice is dangerously negligent.

So sorry you have had such a scare from a health professional...

And congratulations on baby

That is bollocks, in fact this is one of the myths that many orgs are working hard to dispel in developing countries, as it causes many mothers to stop bf their older children when pregnant again, leaving the older ones much more prone to infection and illness. You should definitely complain regardless as this midwife needs to go home and revise a little bit methinks.

Please make a complaint about this woman, she needs re-educating in the correct information to avoid upsetting you again and other mums-to-be.

I had bad inaccurate information from a midwife whilst pregnant and I made a complaint to the 'Supervisor of midwives' at the local hospital who talked to the midwife and found me alternative care so I didn't have to see that person again.

I breastfed throughout my second pregnancy with no problems and now I tandem nurse my 7 month old DS with my 2.7 year old DD. Here is the mumnnet support thread for pregnant nursing mums and tandem nursers

I BF ds1 to 4 months pg with ds2 and am currently tandem feeding ds2 and dd.
If it is a healthy pregnancy you should be okay.