There are many myths surrounding breastfeeding and to be honest they’re all pretty unhelpful… One of the ones you hear most often though, is that breastfeeding your baby will make your boobs saggy.
In light of the unhelpful & (IMO) highly misleading article in closer magazine by Dr Christian Jessen I thought it might be a good idea to set the record straight (again).
In one online survey, half of the young women (aged 18-25) polled said they had no intention of breastfeeding, and 32% stated that their reason for making such a decision was that they didn’t want to develop saggy breasts.
Regardless of the rights and wrongs of such a decision, anyone aiming to encourage women to breastfeed needs to take such figures seriously.
Last year in England and Wales there were nearly 700,000 births. If the above poll is in any way representative, last year something in the region of 350,000 mothers (around half) may have chosen not to breastfeed.
A belief that breastfeeding would adversely affect their figures may therefore have prevented over 200,000 mothers from breastfeeding their babies in England and Wales alone*. *(Until further research is undertaken these figures are purely speculation on my part, however they are based on a large survey of over 1,000 women).
Setting aside for a moment the range of other issues which influence a woman’s decision concerning how she feeds her baby, these statistics are horrifying because they show a huge degree of ignorance when it comes to the facts.
Thousands of women choose never to start breastfeeding because of a myth – they may as well believe the earth is flat.
IT’S SIMPLY NOT TRUE.
Last year thousands and thousands of babies were denied the protection of breast milk and breastfeeding. Not because their mothers weren’t adequately supported (which is so often the case), but actually because their mothers believed a lie.
Who told these women breastfeeding would make their breast sag? Their mothers? Partners? Friends? Doctors?
It’s incredible in the C21st, but this myth is so virulent that despite scientific evidence to the contrary, people still believe it.
So here’s the truth.
Breastfeeding doesn’t make your boobs sag.
Here are the facts on breast sagging (breast-ptosis) and why it happens:
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The majority of women undergo some breast changes during pregnancy. These changes include breast enlargement, increased blood flow, the development of small lumps (‘Montgomery’s tubercles’) on the areola. These changes happen so as to prepare the breasts for breastfeeding a baby after birth.
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Many women put on weight during pregnancy and additional fat stores are laid down in the breasts. This adds to their increase in size. Both of these changes will result in a stretching of the skin, and stretch marks may appear.
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In the days and hours following birth, the breasts begin to make milk. This will happen whether you intend to breastfeed or not. A few days after birth the milk (usually) ‘comes in’ and many women experience some engorgement. Their breasts become full and the skin may feel tight and stretched, (breastfeeding is a great treatment for this). ;)
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If you don’t breastfeed, the breasts gradually stop producing milk and the engorgement subsides on it’s own as the body realises no milk is required. The milk-making machinery then shrinks back in a process called ‘breast involution’. The skin (which has been stretched as explained above) may or may not ‘snap back’ into shape.
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The additional weight gain/ breast enlargement caused by pregnancy may have also stretched the ligaments supporting the breast.
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If a woman smokes, this can affect the ability of her skin to recover from changes (such as those brought on by pregnancy). This is because smoking reduces the levels of collagen and elastin in the body.
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If a woman continues to breastfeed her breast involution will be delayed and will take place when the child weans.
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Age matters – the older we get, the less collagen and elastin we naturally have in our skin (hence wrinkles!), and so with age everyone sags a bit. It’s a fact of life.
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The number of pregnancies you’ve had can also contribute to breast sagging. The associated weight gain/ weight loss and breast enlargement/ breast involution is to blame. Basically, the more pregnancies you have the more you’re putting your body through & the harder it will find it to recover.
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The bigger your breasts are anyway, the more likely they are to head south at some point. This is because of gravity and the weight of the breast pulling on the supporting ligaments.
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There is evidence to show that wearing a bra actually weakens the ligaments supporting the breast (as they are not being used) and therefore contributes to breast ptosis.
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If you lose a lot of weight, your skin may struggle to shrink back once the fat has gone – this can leave your breasts looking ‘empty’. Again, the supporting ligaments may have been stretched in the past.
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Breastfeeding has not been found to be a cause of breast-ptosis.
Breastfeeding helps the body to recover from the changes of pregnancy because it helps the uterus to return to it’s pre-pregnancy size. It also uses up additional calories and therefore assists in post-pregnancy weight loss.
Take a look around you. Can you honestly say you can tell from looking which of the mothers you see out and about have breast-fed? Can you tell if their impressive cleavage is down to a good bra, a set of chicken fillets, good genes, a good surgeon or a breast full of milk?
Didn’t think so.
Here’s the science bit:
*http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19083576
*http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1651-2227.2004.tb02935.x/abstract
Care Instructions – Shopping Bag 
Mummy Milk Rocks – Shopping Bag 
Any Old Cow – Shopping Bag 
“Breastfeeding has not been found to be a cause of breast-ptosis.”
This is a fact.
“Breastfeeding doesn’t cause saggy boobs – FACT!”
This is not a scientifically proven fact.
I don’t think it is helpful in allaying the, albeit ridiculous, fears of women to make sensationalist statements like this. I fully support many (sadly) radical ideas around getting women to breastfeed including formula only on prescription but I cannot support the promotion of misinformation. We all suffer when there is promotion of misinformation in this way but most of all the babies suffer from lack of breastfeeding as a direct result of you undermining your own campaign for truth.
Breastfeeding has not been proven to contribute to breast ptosis. Lets just stick to the actual facts. The case for pregnancy related ptosis is well made but unfortunately the link with breastfeeding has not been conclusively disproven and I am concerned making loud noises that it has will undermine a lot of good work.
My own speculation is that there may well be links between breastfeeding and sagging i.e. if you choose to block feed rather than top up feed the breasts will stretch to engorgement and empty repeatedly in the beginning also my own experience is that during breastfeeding my twins (not my singletons) my breasts continued to grow and stretch as they filled with more and more milk during breastfeeding – they increased a cup size during pregnancy and a further cup size during the first 6 months breastfeeding. I believe if proper research is done on ptosis and breastfeeding it may find a link between some aspects of breastfeeding and breast ptosis.
I think this is a misdirection however. The idea that, as a mother you can abdicate an important responsibility to your child for the sake of vanity or lack of confidence is abhorrent to me. This is what we need to be doing something about not grasping at straws trying to prove things which are likely unprovable and will not address the root cause. There are many complicated life causes of breast ptosis breastfeeding may or may not be one. I believe the overwhelming scientific evidence proves it is not a main or even significant cause but we need to think of how it will look if we make statements like “Breastfeeding doesn’t cause saggy boobs – FACT” and then a credible study shows some breastfeeding situations are even a tiny contributing factor of breast ptosis. It is misdirection. Many things are needed to support, and I believe, coerce more breastfeeding and for longer periods of time for the sake of public health. A campaign to prove breasts don’t get saggy I think is misguided and unhelpful and just further confirms the idea that saggy boobs is the main issue women should be concerned about when thinking about infant feeding.
Rant Over!
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Hi there –
I completely understand and, to some extent agree with your points regarding my article.
The title was chosen as a parody of the Closer magazine article which prompted me to write this piece. There is a link to that article above. In my opinion that article gave a misleading impression about the risks associated with breastfeeding. It was an article where personal opinion was presented as fact, without giving any other points of reference.
The links below the article to the two studies, are the basis for my use of the word ‘fact’. This is in contrast to the anecdotal evidence which other (opposing) points of view cite. I realise not everyone has the same understanding of what constitutes a ‘fact’!
I completely agree with you that ‘The idea that, as a mother you can abdicate an important responsibility to your child for the sake of vanity or lack of confidence is abhorrent to me.’ – However, as a breastfeeding advocate I don’t think it’s possible to ignore the probability that large numbers of women never breastfeed because they believe they will damage their figures. We may not agree with this situation, but it is nonetheless a reality.
Regarding breastfeeding being linked to breast-ptosis – I also agree with you that more research needs to be done. If only to further prove the point that ‘normal’ breastfeeding does not appear to have a negative effect on breast appearance. The commissioning of further research is something we feel is also important. Although repeated engorgement might, as you say, lead to further stretching of the skin – good breastfeeding management aims to avoid this anyway due to the possibility of other (more serious) complications. I really appreciate your taking the time to respond, and I’m sorry you feel the campaign is not helpful. However, given the potentially large numbers of women who choose NOT to breastfeed, I believe it’s important to make people aware that sofar, science has not (to the best of my knowledge!) proven a link, and to suggest otherwise is speculative at the present time.
I appreciate you taking the time to read and respond.
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An interesting blog post on the topic of engorgement. Doesn’t cover every eventuality (as it’s quite a short blog) but in general just illustrates the above point about engorgement not being ‘normal’. http://attachedattheboob.blogspot.com/2010/09/engorgement-is-actually-abnormal.html?spref=tw
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