Pregnant Breastfeeding – What you need to know

While you are nursing a baby or toddler, it is possible to become pregnant again.  So if you find yourself in this situation, you are probably wondering if it is safe to continue to breastfeed while pregnant.  In most cases, it is completely safe and fine to do!   Well-meaning family and friends are likely to provide you with their opinions, so you will want to know more on this matter.   I want this post to provide you with information that can help you in making a decision that works best for you and your children.

The first concern raised may be whether pregnant breastfeeding could trigger labor.  While it’s true that the same hormone, oxytocin, is responsible for the contractions during labor as for milk let-down, there is much less of this hormone released during let-down.  However, if you are at risk of pre-term labor or miscarriage, and/or your healthcare provider  has advised you not to have sexual intercourse or nipple stimulation, then you will want to wean your baby.  Otherwise, for healthy pregnancies, there is no need to be concerned about breastfeeding triggering early labor.

Another concern of pregnant breastfeeding is that your unborn baby’s health will be affected.  This is not true as long as you eat well-balanced, nutritious meals and drink to thirst in order to provide for the needs of all of you.  This is not likely going to be hard to do, as you’re likely to feel hungry a lot of the time anyway.   You may even want to consider seeing a dietician to ensure that you are on the right track, and eating the very best for all of you.

Lastly, you may notice that your nipples will become very tender when pregnant and breastfeeding.  Your nursing child may also notice that the milk tastes different.  Occasionally, babies will wean themselves for this very reason.  Another possibility is that you’ll notice a decrease in your milk supply.  This usually happens during the second trimester of your pregnancy.

I hope that this post gave you some factual information that you can use in making a decision if you find yourself pregnant and breastfeeding.  Once your baby is born, you will need to give consideration to whether you will continue to nurse the older child and the new baby.  This is called “tandem nursing.”  A really good book I suggest on this is called,Adventures in Tandem Nursing: Breastfeeding During Pregnancy and Beyond