Can breastfeeding during pregnancy cause miscarriage?

[RoyaUK]

It's a shame so many medical and health professionals are ill-informed about breastfeeding. With DD3 my doctor told me that i was taking nutrients away from my unborn baby by breastfeeding the toddler. This just demonstrates a lack of knowledge of breastfeeding and physiology and i actually gave her the breastfeeding article from the ABA (...pregnancy & beyond) and told her i had fed through one pregnancy and tandem fed already with the older children.

Then i found myself a new doctor.

Perfectly normal to feed a little one at the same time as being pregnant.

[onthefly]

congratulations!

[trishalishous]

noones ever mentioned this to me. Though we had horrible nappies for a few months, due to my colostrum, and now my milk seems to have stopped (miss E complains my 'bees' arent working)

[Jules84]

Thank you girls, more positive experiences, that's what I like to hear!!

Thanks MadB!!

[Starfish]

It's certainly not true.

I am currently pregnant with number 2 and still breastfeeding my preschooler. We have had no issues so far. In fact, I can't imagine anything worse than morning sickness coupled with not being able to silence the older child with the magic boob...

[maybebaby2012]

I find it absolutely appalling that so many of our health care 'professionals' are giving such misinformed 'advice'! I would suggest finding a different cared provider for your pregnancy if you can. My sister has only just this month stopped BF her first child at around 18months & also happens to be around 24 weeks pregnant with a perfectly healthy bub!

[~ Mylitta ~]

Everyone is saying that it's absolutely not true, but there is actually a small amount of truth in it. Now before you all go throwing rotten fruit at me, I'll explain why. When you breastfeed you produce bucket loads of oxytocin. This hormone can stimulate your uterus and cause contractions (that is why after you have a baby everytime you breastfeed you can get contractions again which helps to shrink the uterus back down). The theory is that these mild contractions in the uterus during early pregnancy might cause miscarriage. This is fairly unlikely though and my Obstetrician told me that the biggest risk actually comes later in pregnancy when it may cause early labour. This is also quite unlikely as well though. I'm sure many people will tell you how hard they try to get babies to come on schedule and almost nothing will budge bub until they decide they are ready, lol.

To put it in perspective though, every time you look at a baby, smell a newborn, hear a baby cry, hug your husband etc etc, you produce oxytocin. So if breastfeeding is a risk, then so is doing anything that results in production of oxytocin...

So technically, there is some small basis behind what the doctor has said, but I weighed up the pros and cons when I fell pregnant and I felt that continued breastfeeding was a lot more beneficial than the very small risk that was associated with it. I've now breastfed through two pregnancies and the last one I was tandem feeding two kids. I'm now triandem feeding three kids

[PumpkinZulu]

I thought everyone already knew that was the 'reasoning' behind it I certainly did. As you said, there are so many other things that cause big bursts of oxytocin, being advised to not BF through pregnancy is pretty outdated unless you're high risk.

[Tegam]

I've breast fed through five pregnancies and have mc twice.... So not great odds here at face value. But I do not believe breast feeding in anyway caused my losses

[~ Mylitta ~]

I thought everyone already knew that was the 'reasoning' behind it I certainly did. As you said, there are so many other things that cause big bursts of oxytocin, being advised to not BF through pregnancy is pretty outdated unless you're high risk.

No one who had previously posted had mentioned that there was a reason a doctor might say it and most of the posts seemed to imply that there was absolutely no way that breastfeeding might cause any harm. While I certainly believe that the risk is extremely minimal, I know that I wanted to be aware of that risk.

When it comes to my Obstetrician and his advise to wean, I figure his number one priority is the baby in my uterus. It's his job to advise how best to protect that baby from even the smallest of risks, so I completely understood him making me aware of the risk and giving his advice, but it was my choice to not heed his advice as my number one priority was all of my children, not just one.

[onthefly]

It's not that much oxytocin. You get considerably more when you orgasm. I understand the general rule is that if you haven't been advised to avoid sex, then there's no medical reason to wean.

[Heaven]

I wonder if breastfeeding during pregnancy does increase oxytocin really. It really didn't feel that enjoyable to me lol

[PumpkinZulu]

I wonder that too. BFing before pregnancy was beautiful and I loved it. I hate BFing while pregnant

[~ Mylitta ~]

It's not that much oxytocin. You get considerably more when you orgasm. I understand the general rule is that if you haven't been advised to avoid sex, then there's no medical reason to wean.

Precisely why I said the risk was small. But small as it is it's still technically a risk. If I had thought the risk was significant enough to outweigh the benefits of breastfeeding my kids during my pregnancies, then I would have weaned, but I didn't

[HotI]

One of the other BB women found that her labour kept stalling, but breastfeeding her toddler helped to get it started again. oxytocin at work?

[~ Mylitta ~]

I wonder if breastfeeding during pregnancy does increase oxytocin really. It really didn't feel that enjoyable to me lol

You definitely still produce oxytocin when breastfeeding during pregnancy, but not as much according to a study (Amico, J., and Finley, B., Breast stimulation in cycling women, pregnant women and a woman with induced lactation: pattern of release of oxytocin, prolactin and luteinizing hormone. Clinical Endocrinology, 1986 25:97-106)


One really important thing that my Obstetrician told me was that while oxytocin can cause mild contractions in any uterus, it's unlikely to cause preterm labour because the number of "oxytocin receptor sites" in the uterus does not increase dramatically until closer to the end of the third trimester. So oxytocin caused from breastfeeding is not likely to cause labour until the uterus is ready for birth anyway.

[Heaven]

I had heard that was the reason for the 'risk' too Mylitta. It bugs me though that it is even mentioned. I mean is there any research into it? (I have no idea). And if oxytocin is such a big risk then why don't Dr's warn about too much cuddling, or laughing, lol. That would be crazy! But there never seems to be a problem suggesting to a woman to stop breastfeeding. Annoying!

[Jennifer13]

Don't forget orgasms!