Breastfeeding Does Not Create Sagging Breasts

Breastfeeding Does Not Create Sagging Breasts; Study Throws Out Old Wives' Tale
Myth Dispelled at American Society of Plastic Surgeons Annual Meeting

For Immediate Release: October 28, 2007

BALTIMORE – While the benefits of breastfeeding are unquestionable, many new mothers choose not to for fear of sagging breasts. However, breastfeeding alone has no impact on a woman’s breast shape, according to a first-of-its-kind study presented today at the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS) Plastic Surgery 2007 conference in Baltimore.

“Many women who come in for breast surgery tell us their breasts are sagging, drooping or are less full because they breastfed,” said Brian Rinker, MD, ASPS Member Surgeon and study author. “Although the amount of sagging in the breasts appears to increase with each pregnancy, we’ve found that breastfeeding does not worsen the effect.”

The study examined 93 women who were pregnant one or more times prior to having cosmetic breast surgery. Fifty-eight percent of patients reported breastfeeding one or more of their children. The duration of breastfeeding ranged from 2 to 25 months, with an average of nine months. Fifty-five percent of respondents reported an adverse change in the shape of their breasts following pregnancy.

As the first study to examine what impacts breast shape in connection to pregnancy, plastic surgeons found that a history of breastfeeding, the number of children breastfed, the duration of each child’s breastfeeding, or the amount of weight gained during pregnancy were not significant predictors for losing breast shape. However, body mass index (BMI), the number of pregnancies, a larger pre-pregnancy bra size, smoking history, and age were significant risk factors for an increased degree of breast sagging.

Nearly 104,000 women had breast lifts in 2006, up 96 percent since 2000, according to the ASPS. In addition, more than 329,000 women had breast augmentation, making it the top surgical cosmetic procedure in 2006.

“Women may be reluctant to breastfeed because of this unfounded myth that doing so means the end of youthful breasts,” said Dr. Rinker. “Now, expectant mothers can relax knowing breastfeeding does not change the appearance of their breasts.”

Breast milk provides indisputable health benefits to infants. Research has shown breastfed infants have improved general health, growth and development as well as a lower risk of many acute and chronic illnesses than bottle-fed infants.

Two gems from youtube

Today I received two fabulous youtube links

Buffy Saint-Marie on Sesame St breastfeeding her baby...a long time ago, but just great to see breastfeeding is on TV!!



and
for the frazzled mother...William Tell!!



The lyrics, by Anita Renfroe
"The Mom Song"

Get up now
Get up now
Get up out of bed
Wash your face
Brush your teeth
Comb your sleepyhead
Here's your clothes and your shoes
Hear the words I said
Get up now! Get up and make your bed
Are you hot? Are you cold?
Are you wearing that?
Where's your books and your lunch and your homework at?
Grab your coat and gloves and your scarf and hat
Don't forget! You gotta feed the cat
Eat your breakfast, the experts tell us it's the most important meal of all
Take your vitamins so you will grow up one day to be big and tall
Please remember the orthodontist will be seeing you at 3 today
Don't forget your piano lesson is this afternoon so you must play
Don't shovel
Chew slowly
But hurry
The bus is here
Be careful
Come back here
Did you wash behind your ears?
Play outside, don't play rough, will you just play fair?
Be polite, make a friend, don't forget to share
Work it out, wait your turn, never take a dare
Get along! Don't make me come down there
Clean your room, fold your clothes, put your stuff away
Make your bed, do it now, do we have all day?
Were you born in a barn? Would you like some hay?
Can you even hear a word I say?
Answer the phone! Get off the phone!
Don't sit so close, turn it down, no texting at the table
No more computer time tonight!
Your iPod's my iPod if you don't listen up
Where are you going and with whom and what time do you think you're coming home?
Saying thank you, please, excuse me makes you welcome everywhere you roam
You'll appreciate my wisdom someday when you're older and you're grown
Can't wait till you have a couple little children of your own
You'll thank me for the counsel I gave you so willingly
But right now I thank you not to roll your eyes at me
Close your mouth when you chew, would appreciate
Take a bite maybe two of the stuff you hate
Use your fork, do not burp or I'll set you straight
Eat the food I put upon your plate
Get an A, get the door, don't get smart with me
Get a grip, get in here, I'll count to three
Get a job, get a life, get a PhD
Get a dose of,
"I don't care who started it!
You're grounded until you're 36"
Get your story straight and tell the truth for once, for heaven's sake
And if all your friends jumped off a cliff would you jump, too?
If I've said it once, I've said at least a thousand times before
That you're too old to act this way
It must be your father's DNA
Look at me when I am talking
Stand up straighter when you walk
A place for everything and everything must be in place
Stop crying or I'll give you something real to cry about
Oh!
Brush your teeth, wash your face, put your PJs on
Get in bed, get up here, say a prayer with mom
Don't forget, I love you
And tomorrow we will do this all again because a mom's work never ends
You don't need the reason why
Because, because, because, because
I said so, I said so, I said so, I said so
I'm the mom, the mom, the mom, the mom, the mom!!
Ta da!!!

Tokyo Pregnancy group

What a nice bunch of ladies I spoke to today at TPG! Thankyou for having me, as you can tell I always enjoy chatting about breastfeeding!

You might be interested in the results of my small survey. I received 16 completed forms back.
100% said you wanted to breastfeed
The expected duration ranged from 3m to "as long as I can", with more 50% saying 6 months or more.
100% of you had spoken to your partners about breastfeeding
94% had spoken to your mothers about breastfeeding.
75% of you were breastfed

You all had experience seeing other mothers feed

Nobody said their breasts had been checked during pregnancy, but because of the way that question was worded, it also looked like nobody had discussed breastfeeding with you. (i.e. 0%)

What worries you most about breastfeeding (multiple answers given by some people):
43% worried about not being successful
25% worried about poor latch
only 18% of you worried about pain.
6% each for:
worries about your own patience level,
not enough milk,
tiredness,
engorgement,
combining breastfeeding with medications,
baby being too demanding.

93% of you had heard of La Leche League, and almost all of you knew it was a breastfeeding support group with resources for mothers. This is particularly pleasing, as a major survey was carried out by LLL to see what the recognition level was for their name and purpose, and we did better than them!

Are Vitamin D supplements necessary for breastfed babies?

Recently received from LLL:

Q: I received an email from a Canadian based Baby Centre which said
that breastmilk doesn’t contain enough vitamin D and that breastfeeding
mothers should give vitamin D drops starting at 2 months of age. Is
this necessary?

A: It is generally agreed that vitamin supplements are unnecessary for
almost all healthy, full-term babies. Human milk was designed by nature
for the special needs of the human baby. It contains all the nutrients
a baby needs in the ideal proportions.

It’s quite true that human milk does not contain enough vitamin D in
itself to prevent rickets. (Rickets is a potentially life threatening
disease caused by insufficient sunlight exposure). However, most
exclusively breastfed babies are still not at risk of rickets because
they get enough exposure to sunlight and this results in adequate
vitamin D synthesis in the body. Just a few minutes of sunshine per
day is all that’s necessary.

At greatest risk for vitamin D deficiency are those who have one or
more of the following risk factors:

*Dark Skin
*Consistent coverage of the skin with clothing or sunscreen when
outdoors
*Live in areas where there is little sunlight for parts of the year or
do not
go outdoors
*Live in areas of heavy air pollution, which blocks sunlight
*Mother if vitamin D deficient

It is believed that more cases of rickets are being seen because dark
skinned mothers of African descent have migrated to cold, dark northern
climates. These mothers may traditionally cover much of their body, so
they get very little exposure to the sun. That wasn’t a problem in
their home countries where the sunlight was intense, but in the darker
climes of North American and North Europe, where winter sunshine is
frankly... minimal, they may not get enough for their bodies to make
the required amounts of vitamin D. Also, in other populations, more
people are avoiding sunlight exposure by staying out of the sun and
using more sunscreen.

So the question being pondered by health agencies in some countries is
whether vitamin D supplements should be universally recommended for
exclusively breastfeeding babies or only those populations considered
at risk. Perhaps in Canada the government decided to err on the safe
side and recommend vitamin D for all babies.

So far, however, research shows that exclusively breastfed babies,
healthy, full-term infants from birth to 6 months who have adequate
exposure to sunlight are not at risk for developing vitamin D
deficiency or rickets.

(information taken from The Breastfeeding Answer Book published by La
Leche League International, Third Revised Edition &
www.lalecheleague.org/Release/vitamind.html).

Purchasing a breast pump

If you are interested in expressing some milk to leave for baby when you go out for dinner or to the gym, then an effective breast pump is crucial. There are several Medela pumps available through the babycafe japan amazon store at varying prices:
Swing
Mini Electric
Harmony


If you need to increase your milk supply or your baby is separated from you due to sickness or your return to work, it is better to rent a proper hospital grade pump. You can do this via Hoxon. See the rental breast pumps link in the right-hand column.

If you have cracked or painful nipples after your baby is born, the first thing you need to do is have a midwife or lactation consultant come and work with you while you correct baby's latch. Breastfeeding is not supposed to hurt! Some mothers find that some special lanolin nipple cream helps relieve the pain. There are a few brands around, watch out for any that need to be removed before nursing: these are NOT the brands to buy.

A well-known brand is Purelan, available through BabiesRUs, Tokuyama baby, or amazon here

Saving breastfeeding

The latest edition of Tokyo Families magazine carries my article "Saving Breastfeeding: when things are going wrong, how can you get breastfeeding back on track?"
Click on the title to view it.

I mention eight things you can do and give some resources at the end. If breastfeeding is tough for you, drop me an email or call me, and we can talk about your own unique situation and what we can do to help improve things.

My website with my contact details is linked on the right hand side. Click on blue sky tokyo.

Breastfeeding conferences over the summer

I was fortunate to be able to attend 2 fabulous breastfeeding conferences over the summer.

The first was La Leche League International's 50th anniversary conference in Chicago from July 17th to 24th, attended by over 3000 people and the second was the Australian Breastfeeding Association's Hot Milk conference in Melbourne from August 1st to 4th attended by 1800 people.

The superb calibre of speakers at both, and the enormous range of topics, both breastfeeding- and parenting-related made both events very inspiring and extremely worthwhile. Over the next little while I plan to add some of the information to this blog so stay tuned!