Breasts worse after breastfeeding?

[Magic28]

Hi, I just wondered is it true that pregnancy ruins you're breasts just the same as breastfeeding does? I thought this was said in an attempt to not discourage breastfeeding. I don't understand how months of breastfeeding can't make them sag more when pregnancy only makes the milk come in once then go. Would my breasts look better if I hadn't have breastfed? Anybody not breastfed from birth and not had sagging?

Sagging is caused by gravity and ageing, not pregnancy/bfing.

I only breastfed for a very short time. Mine aren’t terrible but not what they were either.
But I agree unfortunately based on my own experiences and that of friends that any breastfeeding is more likely to cause a sag than none because of the milk in coming over and over and the stretching.
Just another thing women have to trade off. Breastfeed best for baby /saggy breasts for mum

For some reason when it comes to pregnancy childbirth and caring for small babies I think the nhs are selective with their facts to sway women. It’s similar to the ‘pregnancy can do the damage to pelvic floor a section won’t prevent pelvic floor damage’. Yet you never see posts on here from c section mums Devestated because they are 30 and wet themselves.
It’s like health propoganda to get women to do something/cost the health service less.

Sorry but definitely worse shape and firmness post breastfeeding. I guess the skin and tissue gets stretched for months from the original and then when they go back to original size the elasticity is not so amazing. I don't know anyone who hasn't complained about post bf boobs losing condition compared to before.

The stretching from my latest pregnancy (sadly ended in MC so I didn't breastfeed afterwards) definitely made my boobs sag more. I need to get back on the pec exercises as that made a big difference after I had my DD. You can't reverse stretching of skin but you can build muscle in that area of your body, which helps to make everything look a bit better again!

I must not sure that we should really care so much? Worththinking about at least.

Mine are fine and I've breastfed for years.

That what's I've heard too. They say they get better after 6 months after you stop due to fatty tissue replacing the empty spaces where the milk was. Has anybody noticed a difference and how long did it take? I just wondered if it could take a year or so? I'm just looking for some hope and don't mean to sound vain!

Orangesandlemons1 I don't think nhs should be allowed to keep things from us. I put so much pressure on myself to breastfeed and feel traumatised by the whole experience and I felt so pressured into continuing it for months on end even when I was a complete sleep deprived emotional wreck and somebody should have really not told me that fed is best. I felt like I would let my baby down if gave a drop of formula! I can't get that time back with my baby and spent it crying over breastfeeding 12-14 times a day and why I couldn't express much and then developing mastitis and feeling like an exhausted wreck all of the time. If I could go back I'd have not done it and I feel I really don't want to breastfeed a second baby and I feel like the worst person in the world for saying that!

Breastfeeding did a number on mine, no lie. But it's all part of living. Mine bounced back after DC1, less so with DC2. After 3 kids and at 45 years of age, they're not the breasts I'd gleefully choose to have but they're mine (what's left of them) and they've done a stellar job!

There are cosmetic solutions. Not my bag but many of my friends had their breasts done when they completed their families.

My milk didn't come in straight away and I had trouble getting it to (now I know it's normal for it to take up to 5 or 6 days) and hospital had me hooked up to a double pump days after a long labour and difficult birth monitoring me to see if it has came in. I felt like a farmyard animal and people walking in and out not knocking and asking if I had managed to get any. I cries and cried feeling like an utter failure. I am truly traumatised even now about my experience. The I look at these boobs and they remind me of it.

Then

It takes a lot longer than they say to get your breasts back into shape. I had and BF three. About 18 months to be back in shape, by my reckoning.
You need a bloody good bra, maintain stable weight and to do exercises. Genes also help, have a look at your female relatives.

@TheVanguardSix Did you breast feed your first if you don't mind me asking? How long did it take for them to go back to normal?

MrsPestilence That's good to hear there's hope at least. Was it 18 months for them to firm up more? Everybody tells me 6 months and I'm not seeing enough improvement.

They looked the same after nursing for 18m. No sagging at all! I think just maintaining whichever weight is healthy for you, and regular exercise (just a short daily walk counts) helped.

Mine are larger and have always sagged - they grew so much during pregnancy tho, I’m not sure the blame can all be put on BF. Second pregnancy and already noticing changes in my bust size, pretty sure I’m going to go for a reduction once I’ve finished BF second baby.

I don't feel half as firm after breastfeeding for 6 months to be honest and they do feel softer, my left one is softer and more droopy than the right which is really odd. I have gained more than the appropriate weight and im back to my pre preg weight. Genetically I don't know because my grandmother is dead and my mother isn't around either. That's why I'm on here asking you lovely ladies and hope you don't judge me for being vain and traumatised by my breastfeeding experience so it does run deeper as well.

Haven't

Mine spent about six months sulking and then over the next year crept back to almost the same a before DC. I'm 50 now and they only sag a little. I have good genes and have spent a fortune on bras.

Concentrate on some exercise to do toning (to your whole body) and hopefully your boobs will catch up.

Much worse after breastfeeding. Mine went enormous and I can only assume that it was this big change in size/volume that made them so droopy afterwards.

It annoys me when I read that pregnancy causes boobs to change size, not BF; I suppose it's to encourage more women to BF but it certainly wasn't true for me.

I agree because my boobs looked exactly the same after pregnancy as my milk hadn't come in and didn't until over a week after birth and it was after breastfeeding they changed.

I wish they would give you the facts so you can be prepared for all scenarios as we don't bed nasty surprises there's enough of those!

want

Well your breasts change size when pg, it’s not only after birth that that happens so I wouldn’t be surprised that pg affects how they look. I would ask how you define “worse” - breasts are healthier after bf surely (I’m no scientist) but bf is supposed to have some reducing effect on chances of breast cancer, so that’s an improvement surely. I think if you weren’t so upset about your experience the shape wouldn’t bother you so much - so can you work on that a bit, maybe write about or even draw your feelings to get it out there and stop it festering so much? There’s lots about a newborn that is hard even if ff, the first 6 months with a first child can be hellish, even without complications such as pnd. You need some time to recover mentally and physically - try not to judge yourself so much

I bf twins for two years. I did find for a few months after I stopped my breasts were smaller and slightly more saggy than before and I wasn't sure if they would recover but then they returned to nearly the same as pre pregnancy. I can't see how pregnancy wouldn't change breasts though - all the size increases surely must do something. I do do quite a bit of exercise (circuits and swimming) so maybe that has made a difference. Asptheduffy says the health benefits of bf sold me anyway so I tried not to worry too much about changes.