Stopping breastfeeding/expressing - share your experiences

[tfh]

Please can you share your experiences when you gave up breastfeeding/expressing? Did you get boob pain/aches? How long did you leak milk for? Grateful for anything you can share as I'm going through it and not sure what to expect.

My baby is 9mo now. Ever since I went back to work when she was 3 months, my milk supply practically plummeted.

Before, I could nurse her and still pump 1-2 bottles. Now, I'm lucky if I get 1 bottle for her. This is a little weird for me bc she always gets milk when she nurses, but if I pump, my boobs aren't getting empty.

I only leak if really engorged (6-8hrs post last express/feeding). Before, I would pump and have to pump again 1-2hrs later. Now, it's more like a work shift.

They still hurt quite a bit when engorged.

Her nursing from one boob will still trigger the other one to leak.

Breastfed for 5 months before getting mastitis and nasty chest infection which led to my supply reducing and it never went back up to what my son needed, so combi fed and gradually stopped from there onwards. I would express if they felt sore/ engorged and skipped feeds, took 2-3 weeks I’d say. They did leak a couple of nights but nothing major.

I had a huge hormonal crash though, my hormones and mental health were all over the place, mainly because I couldn’t get my supply back up but it’s all levelled out now and feel ‘myself’ again x