Breast augmentation after breastfeeding.

[Iwasjustabouttosaythat]

Anyone had this done? Just finished 17 months pumping for twins which followed over two years breastfeeding DS. Happy it’s all over but the breasts are in such a state. I used to love them but now I just find them depressing. Anyone had theirs done? Implants or lift? All info welcome!

Have you had any professional advice yet, Cats? Implant seems better than lift for me. There’s nothing to lift anymore! 😂 Also I think you can get away with no scarring with implants these days.

We’re (hopefully) not done with DC yet but I’ll definitley have them augmented once done. My DD refused to feed from one side from about 6 months old and consequently one is huge and the other tiny. They were a C before and now are very empty at the top and not a huge amount of tissue at the bottom. They’ve also sagged slightly. It’s been over 18 months since I stopped and there is no sign of a return to pre baby days.

I have always had big boobs and still do but having had DS they are definitely saggier now. (I think probably because during pregnancy they leapt up 2 and a bit cup sizes and then shrank back down 1 and a bit cups) I'd be really interested in a lift.

Can PPs who have had lifts give a rough estimate on what it costs?

Just bear in mind that implants have a shelf life and typically last around 10-20 years before they need replacing.
It is not a do it once and done procedure.

Iwasjust not from surgeons, but I’ve spoken to women who have had the procedure. Almost everyone seems happy with it. I know what size I want and what look I want, and am going to start researching surgeons next.

I have other medical issues taking priority but once those are sorted and I have another DC, it’s definitely something I will look into.

I have to have a lot of surgery for medical reasons (5 already with a six and seven looking likely) so I know I react okay to anaesthetic and I rationalise it by it’ll be nice having a surgery that I feel positive about lmao.

I'm not hijacking, I just object to unintentional myth perpetuation, same as a throwaway line of 'my baby fed constantly so I obviously wasn't making enough milk' can be taken as fact by someone who doesn't know any better. An entire thread devoted to someone wanting breast augmentation BECAUSE they've breastfed, and people agreeing, is really going to drive the message home that breastfeeding wrecks your boobs. Here is just one study if you want facts, and that's all I'll say:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/20354434/

So how come the lady who only fed on one side has different boobs now? If pregnancy only had an effect that wouldn't be the case. I didn't BF as my baby refused point blank to latch so expressed colostrum then ff. My boobs are exactly the same as pre pregnancy. I'm not saying it's a reason to decide how to feed but based on the experiences of those around me I absolutely believe that breastfeeding affects your breasts. Hardly surprising...

Elphaba, before I go on I’m going to point out that we’re on the same side. I support breastfeeding wholeheartedly. If women are going to decide not to breastfeed their children because of how their breasts might look in the future then your beef really isn’t with this discussion. You need to look at the big picture and the reasons women would put something so superficial before their children. And while I’m clearly upset about it I know it is superficial and I made my decision accordingly. Go over to the feminism boards and discuss how to make us all ok with our natural bodies as a proper solution.

Now to the study. You have three big problems with this one:

1. it’s a very small sample of women (132). Your sample group is not big enough to show and sort of trend.

2. the women are self reporting. This is notoriously unreliable.

3. this is the big one. Your study is done by... a plastic surgeon. A plastic surgeon who does breast augmentations for a living. I don’t think it’s just me who can see a conflict of interest here? “Hey ladies, more breastfeeding! Oh, your boobs are super saggy and you want me to fix them? Ok ok give me the money but let me reassure you and all the other ladies that it wasn’t the breastfeeding that did it! No! It was when you used to smoke as a teenager, or when you went jogging, or when you were pregnant, but totally not the daily increasing and decreasing of breast size that I told you to do before you came to me and paid me to get your breasts augmented.” 🤔

Another thing I should mention is that I have a background in science and if you want to talk to me about “facts” you’re going to need to find some.

BF absolutely changed my boobs. While they got a bit bigger while pg once my milk came in they went mental! My DH said watching me feed my newborn was like watching the millennium falcon dock into a death star. After 2nd I had sad little sacs that flapped very low. A few years later and they are def better, and as my oldest is now 7 I can’t tell what is just ageing and what was breastfeeding but they are less firm than they used to be. I remember sitting in the bath massaging them like crazy to get rid of mastitis lumps and to take some off the top as I had too much milk... it can’t have had no effect. Also my babies used to pummel them with their fists! I wouldn’t change a thing but I do agree that in my case BF has not helped my boobs at all.

Blogger was considering this when she has her final baby next year but then she looked at her 5 year old daughter and wondered how she will feel when daughter is going through puberty and unhappy with her boobs and asks Mum why are hers so perfect. Blogger said that she wouldn't be happy explaining that she had fake breasts as she wasn't happy with them whilst at the same time trying to ensure body positivity with her daughter. Was an interesting point. By the way, I breastfed my two for five years each. Breasts bigger after and still nice.

Dotty, I have two DDs and have been thinking about this a lot. The fact is I would be sad if they felt they had to cut up there bodies to feel good about themselves, and what could I possibly say against it if I did the same thing?

On the other hand plastic surgery is so common place these days. It’s just day surgery and not that big a deal. And shouldn’t people do whatever they want with their own bodies? They hang and get in my way and all my bras are uncomfortable now. Maybe doing something to feel good about myself is leading by example?

I was actually going to start a discussion about this in feminism. This is as good a place as any though.

Iwas. It does seem much more common nowadays than when I had my children. I did read that what you eat in pregnancy and breastfeeding can stop breasts sagging. A diet high in k2 and saturated fats keeps skin elastic. The other thing I recall was that the longer you breastfeed the better for your breasts returning to their natural shape. ie. feed for at least 2 to 4 years and be child led. When women stop breastfeeding for their own reasons (return to work or had enough etc) rather than child led end to weaning. When the child has done with feeding it stops gradually and your breasts have had time to adjust along the way as last feeds a child if 4/5 wants are usually a suckle in the am and before bed pm. That's what I read when making my decision to feed as long as my baby wanted. Don't know if that's why my breasts were still bigger and more or less the same after stopping. Not always possible in our society though with Mums returning to work. I was a SAHM though so it worked for me.

1. In the health sciences (which is my background) 132 is a pretty decent sample size for such a niche subject.

2. Of course they're self-reporting. How saggy your boobs are is an entirely subjective position. There is no way of gathering objective data on this.

3. What other profession would be gathering information on causes of 'breast ptosis' to inform breast augmentation? And if s/he were doing it as a form of advertising to potential customers, 'The Annals of Plastic Surgery' is a pretty weird platform to pitch it on.

You need to look at the big picture and the reasons women would put something so superficial before their children.

One of those reasons would be reading threads specifically saying someone's after breast augmentation as a direct result of damage caused by breastfeeding. You could have left the breastfeeding bit out, keeping it to, 'I've finished having children and would like a breast augmentation'. That is all.

And if anyone's after any more anecdata, my boobs are absolutely fine after over three years of breastfeeding two babies. The source I got that article from fed for a total of eleven years and is as perky as a sixteen year old. It's largely down to genes.

Elphaba, your response has really shown your ignorance. 132 is not a decent sample size in any science. You think they bring in new medication based on one study of that size? 😂 Studies need to be recreated and the results independently verified to be worth the time of day at all. The study you provided is worthless, and your little bit of anecdata about your boobs has just shown that, as clearly pregnancy had no effect either like the study suggested it would. And I don’t see how your anecdote is more relevant than the woman above who actually has two different breasts to compare so would be more reliable than your example.

I do note that you, Wikipedia and several lame “science” articles all quote from that study when saggy boobs come up, so yeah, I’d say it’s doing the job of encouraging women to breastfeed with the reassurance their breasts won’t sag because of it. Or are you so unaware you don’t realise you’ve just done that on a public forum? 🤣

Maybe you are an NHS nurse or something? But you clearly don’t know how to read or assess a scientific study.

Stop derailing the thread. I won’t bother responding to you from now on. You’ve embarrassed yourself enough.

I breastfed for almost 6 years combined and my breasts are absolutely fine and not saggy at all - as good as before. I think the saggy boob after BF is a bit of a myth.

Ginger, I’ve got before and after shots of mine. You wanna see?

I believe you - just saying that saggy breasts are not a given after BF. I have friends who FF simply because of all scaremongering about breast going down.

I'm pretty convinced mine have changed as a combination of weight gain/loss and breastfeeding. I'm now losing weight and ds is 13 months so not feeding as often and there is a lot of extra skin.

The only surgery I would consider is uplift, no augmentation. But I don't know a whole lot about it and feel quite nervous about optional surgery tbh.

Ginger, I agree it’s not a given. I’m sure genes have a lot to do with it, just like those women I see wearing bikinis at the pool who have 3 children with them and not a single stretch mark. That didn’t happen for me. My breasts seem to have been effected in exactly the same way as my belly by the rapid weight gain and loss.

I would be curious to know if your FF friends feel they were successful in saving their perky breasts or if just the pregnancy did for them.

I would be curious to know if your FF friends feel they were successful in saving their perky breasts or if just the pregnancy did for them.

we never really talked about it.

but agree, could be genes. I went twice 2 weeks over my due date and had big babies (I pretty skinny otherwise) and one tiny stretch mark. I must have been lucky.

I am sure genetics has a lot to do with it.
I have three children and no stretch marks at all.

I am currently bf the third and based on what happened after the other two, I know my boobs will deflate once I stop. Hard to know if it is pregnancy related though as I kind of wonder does bf keep your boobs inflated as such while you are doing it and then they 'deflate' down to what they would have been post pregnancy anyway?
but surely some everyone has different results - the same way some gets stretch marks, some don't?
Also age must play a part? Would a mother in early twenties see the same affect as someone late thirties?