Breastfeeding while pregnant

[Starry4321]

Just found out I am pregnant with baby number 2. Think it’s pretty early 4/5 weeks. My first baby is 15 months and still breastfeeding. Is it safe to keep breastfeeding in terms of new pregnancy? Can it affect hormones / embryo etc due to contracting uterus? Thanks

Only my own personal experience, but I'm pregnant with dc4 and breastfeeding dc3. I breastfed DC 2 while pregnant with dc3 and while pregnant with dc2 was breastfeeding dc1. I have always fed them up to 2 years of age and had them fairly close together. Breastfeeding was never an issue for the following pregnancy.

Hi! I’m in the same boat, how are you getting on?

@BGxxx I breastfed my DD throughout my pregnancy with DS (and I'm still feeding them both at 3 and 1 years old). It had no impact whatsoever on my pregnancy. I did find it painful at times, and I think my DD was dry feeding for a time as my milk supply was definitely reduced, but she stuck with it and I was happy to keep feeding her for as long as she wanted

There is no medical reason to stop breastfeeding when pregnant and no risk to either of your children. Lots of women find that their milk supply reduces at some point during pregnancy. Some children therefore lose interest, others get frustrated and want to feed a lot to try to get the milk they find comforting. Some women find breastfeeding painful at some point whilst pregnant and some experience feeding aversion. These can be reasons mums choose to stop. Continuing to feed your older child after the baby is born (tandem feeding) is also an option that does no harm to the new baby. Whatever you choose you've done a great job. Good luck with your pregnancy and ne baby

@sexnotgenders thats great thank you for commenting! I will have a similar age gap so hoping to tandem feed also

@BGxxx if you're hoping to feed both, I'd recommend assigning a breast each. I found tandem feeding both kids from both breasts really messed with my supply - a toddler suckling creates a lot of milk, so when I switched to the baby, my letdown would nearly take his head off and he couldn't cope with the volume. Things settled down when I gave them a breast each - they were then both able to regulate the supply from their own breast better. They still have their own one now. In hindsight, I would've done it from the very start as I think my toddler drunk up all the colostrum before my poor son got a look in (she told me it was yummy!) 😂😂

I hope you have a safe and healthy pregnancy and good luck with baby number 2. I love the age gap I've got, and they're starting to become a real little double act, which is just so precious 🥰🥰