The Breasts

[Holly]

Me and my sister were talking this afternoon about the body of women after they have a baby.

My mother always said her boobs were so "saggy" lol because she breastfed 4 children.

This made me wonder, if they dont breast feed, and they bottle feed from birth, would a woman's breasts still sag???

[{sarah}]

Yep definately! My boobs are nothing like they were pre-pregnancy & I never actually had any milk come in so it's not like they were full of milk then went down to be nothing again. Does that make sense?!

[Holly]

So its pregnancy that makes them "sag" not breastfeeding?

[{sarah}]

I'm not sure really. But if you think about it, when you first fall pregnant you notice your boobs get bigger so maybe it's related to that???

[Marcia]

Yep, I think pregnancy makes them sag and then breast feeding makes them worse! I only BF for a month, but mine are really not good anymore! Basically I think it is the fact that your boobs get bigger while pregnant, which stretches the skin, then if your milk comes in and you breastfeed they get even bigger and the skin stretches even more, and then once you stop and they go back to pre-preg. size you are left with excess skin and nothing to fill it with. Pretty much like what happens when a person loses a huge amount of weight in a short time. Excess skin that doesn't shrink back. I have heard that if you wean gradually that the skin has a better chance of gradually tightening back up and you are less likely to be left with saggy boobs? Not sure, as I pretty much stopped completely once I stopped breastfeeding.

[Fenella]

I think they will always sag whether you breastfeed or not (because of gravity's effects), but it will take longer if you don't get pregnant or breastfeed, for the reasons others have suggested.

[Ambah]

Mine are a lot saggier than pre pg as well.
I put this down to the weight gain during pg, which stretched the skin. And then when my milk came in they were stretched to mammoth proportions that they had never been before - even though I didn't succeed at BF for very long.
I have also heard that breast fat is replaced by more milk ducts when BF, which dont return to fat once BF is over - hence boobs also being more deflated/saggy, however I dont know if that last one is true or not?

[Tobily]

Mine are definitely not as "pert" as they were - I breastfed for a while but I think it was the pregnancy that did it. They grow so much and then when all the hormones are out of your system they're never the same!

[Jennifer13]

My ob told me that you can't avoid saggy bbs by not bf, 'cause pg does the most 'damage'. After going up several bra sizes during the pg and then only one more while bf I can definitely attest to that. Plus, now that my bbs are in maintenance mode and I don't get so engorged, I think I need to go back down a size.

But I think it's worth it!!! I'd rather have my baby than pert bbs any day.

[{sarah}]

But I think it's worth it!!! I'd rather have my baby than pert bbs any day.

Ditto to that

[Lil_Pearl]

Breastfeeding is not what makes ones breast 'sag'. It is pregnancy that can do this, and then breastfeeding makes no difference....don't worry, breastfeeding will not = saggy breasts .

[enigma]

Yep , im bottlefeeding since birth and yep - they arent what they used to be
but then again i never actually had much there anyways lol , only during pregnancy i went to a C cup, back to A & B now

[Trillian]

I must be lucky because mine have stayed the same as far as I can tell sag-wise, but the left one if bigger now and before they were both the same size (C) and now they have stayed as a D cup size, sometime DD depending on the bra. But is has been 2 years since Paige was born so maybe over time they change again?

[*Rae*]

Oh Sherie u r sooooo lucky. Mine were a small 10C before preg. Jumped to a really full and lovely 10C when i exclusively b/f but now r back to normal as i'm down to 2 feeds a day. Worried they'll go completely once i stop b/f ...oh well - i'll just have to have another bub

[*Rae*]

Tanya it's because the milk ducts replace the fatty tissue in the breast when u b/f - so when u stop the fat doesn't return. Isn't it annoying that the one damn place i actually want fat to return doesn't - typical!!!!!!!!!!!!!
BTW - gorgeous pic of Lucas - he's growing so much!!!

[*Rae*]

Yeah i've made my DH promise me implants after i've had all chn- as Gwyneth Paltrow put it so nicely "it's not cosmetic surgery (implants after baby and b/f) it's reconstructive surgery" - lol - i love it!!!!

[Melbo]

Mine look the same as they did before but I did go up a cup size. I wasn't able to BF so I really don't know what they would have been like otherwise. I do know that boobs sag with age anyway so in the end it doesn't really matter!

[chocolatecatty]

The Aus. Breastfeeding Association book (breastfeeding.....naturally) says that if you wean gradually, your boobs will have time to put some fat back on in place of the unused milk ducts so they wont sag as much as if you'd just stopped cold turkey.....good book that.