My feet hurt, my knees ache ... is it because I am bfing or am I just knackered now I have had a baby?

[bumbleweed]

Its 10 months now since I gave birth, and the achey feet and knees on a morning have not gone away.

Is it because I am breastfeeding and therefore depleted in nutrients? Or because I am just a knackered old bag of bones now that I have had a baby?

My GP also told me that due to bfing, perineal scar takes longer to heal

Does anyone know anything about any of this or can point me to any links?

2now4 thanks for replying - you too then with the knees

morningpaper, poor you, sounds like its really taken its toll. not very comforting to know really, but thats the reality I guess

thanks I will defo get checked out

My knees were a bit sore on the stairs. esp first thing in the morning. i also had v v swollen ankles which the doc said were 'probably hormonal' as other medical causes had been ruled out. My ankles were quite painful because of this. I gave up feeding at 3months & both are now better (1 month later) (I lost at least 3/4 stone of retained fluid in 10days!!!) - so I think it was hormonal.

I would still get it checked out as 10months is significantly different to 3 months...

i gave birth 7 months ago and every bit in my body hurts.
my head.my back kills me.my knees.
the gp said i may be tired.or its maybe the coil but gave me no medecine. im thinking of starting drinking power drinks. like red bull

I had constant bad backache, achey knees and even hands/feet while I was breastfeeding. Some of the backache was definitely down to loose joints and bad posture during feeds, but a lot of it carried on after I stopped (at six months) so a lot of it was probably down to less rest, much more carrying weights than I was used to (not just dd, but car seats, washing, etc etc).

As an older mother (43 when dd was born) I put it down to age and felt depressed, but by the time she was 18 months and I was carrying her a lot less, I felt fine again! Too much so, I'm now expecting dd2 - and dreading the aches

I had the same symptoms when my ds was born and after a few months thinking that I was tired because of my age (had ds at 44yo) and the fact ds was prem didnt help,I got the metal gloves for my wrists as couldnt hold ds without pain and them being weak when he was born.Couldnt pick him up tho so when we came home after 4 weeks in hospital, I had to stop wearing them. After many weeks of achy arms,legs(knees especially), tiredness etc dr sent blood tests and I had a thyroid problem which the dr told me is brought to light after childbirth as it is a hormonal problem I find that I feel a lot of pmt symptoms - poor dh -as for my memory dont ask. I have been given thyroxin and once the dosage is correct will supposedly be alot better , it is going better but not even 65% yet.

I had incredibly painful wrists when my dd was a baby - then my brother told me that it was the way I was picking her up. He suggested that I pick her up by the front of her babygro with one hand while supporting her but not taking any weight with the other. He has a physically disabled friend who always picked her babies up like that. It worked wonders for me - the pain in my wrists and arms went in a week. Be careful not to do it if the babygro opens down the back, though!!!

All the other aches and pains go with time - I think mine were largely because I was sitting down so much - I started to feel better when we reached crawling and had to a lot of dashing about after my speedy gonzalez!

I am so surprised at all these comments on this thread, there is obvioulsey something in giving birth that makes your joints ache, any professionals out there that can throw any light on this?

I just put it down to giving birth, the un-natural positions we put ourselves in! (contortionists) alot of us have pain killers so don't realise the actual strain we put on ourselves we are sooo flexible!

I remember my arms ached in the early days because I had to use a pillow to get dd nearer to the boob to feed, felt like I couldnt take the weight of her in my arms.

This seems crazy now as I can now hold a 10m old in my arms but a new born felt so heavy? But perhaps it was that the joints were weakened by relaxin, or just that I was unused to the weight and have now 10 months of muscle building practice.

I think its another one of those aspects of pregnancy, childbirth and motherhood that is little talked about - so the uninitiated have absolutely no idea and it comes as a complete shock to us.