Nursing While Pregnant

Remember that this is unedited text -- like "letters to the editor." Identifying information, such as names, has been removed; but otherwise it is posted here pretty much as it came in. So read it as personal opinion shared with warm intentions but without authority of any kind.

I am currently 7 weeks pregnant and still nursing my 2 year old son. I have suffered 2 miscarriages in the past 6 months. Though there seems to be no evidence of miscarriage associated with nursing, there also seems to be no evidence of a study specific to multiple miscarriages. Are there any studies that I may have missed and what are your thoughts?

Currently I have a 2 1/2 year old daughter who is still nursing, plus I am 8 months pregnant with twins. I have found nothing/no one who can talk with me about nursing a toddler through a pregnancy and about nursing 3(?!) kids later on. Instead I get lots of encouragement to wean my daughter. My questions now are about my milk supply's transition from "toddler milk" to "baby milk," how people have managed nursing toddlers and babies, etc.

My son was about 8-9 mos. old when I became pregnant with my daughter. We nursed throughout my pregnancy. Got quite a few negative comments from "well-meaning" folks, such as, "Does your doctor know what you are doing?" "That will make you look old before your time." (Which, considering at 30 I was still being carded as a teenager for R-rated movies, I viewed as good. I might finally look closer to my actual age.)

I wondered (the first time) about the color of my milk (clear) (during pregnancy) and if it was normal. I couldn't find any info anywhere (and I'm a LLLL!) and had finally talked to another mom who nursed during pregnancy and she said hers was clear also.

I was surprised at how much nursing while pregnant hurt. The pain was incredible! I thought it was just because my nipples were tender due to my increased hormones. Later I heard at a LLL meeting that another reason could be due to the fact that my milk went away, and apparently sucking on an "empty" breast hurts a lot more. My daughter had gotten used to nursing at night in our bed (she slept with us). To prepare for the new baby, during the middle of my pregnancy we moved her into a bed with her brother. That lessened her waking at night, but she still woke up once during the night about half the time. Prepregnancy, I was able to just let her lie next to me nursing in bed and we'd both fall back asleep. With my intense nipple pain, however, it was impossible for me to fall back asleep. So I weaned her from nighttime nursing. At first this just didn't seem in accordance with my perception of LLL philosophy, because I was accustomed to the principle espoused by Dr. Sears of breastfeeding on demand for infants. But, as I learned, things change when an infant becomes a toddler. I checked the Baby Book by Dr. Sears and found out yes, it's okay not to give in to these demands once the baby becomes a toddler. I took comfort in this and rocked her back to sleep.

I am 16 weeks pregnant and have continued nursing my now 2 year old. My milk production seemed to stop or slow significantly almost immediately after I discovered my pregnancy, however that never slowed my daughter's interest. Interesting things I've discovered so far: 1) Nursing helped a great deal in the first trimester to get an active toddler to settle down so I could get much needed sleep. 2) I have had no soreness in my breasts at all and also have noticed very little growth in size. 3) I did cut out the night nursings so that I could sleep better. We did this by discussing how Ma-Ma had to go to sleep and she could do Ma-Ma when the sun came up. This worked amazingly well! Little tips like these would be very beneficial to other pregnant moms of nursing toddlers. I would love a resource to go to for such information.

I became pregnant when my son was 18 months old. He nursed frequently and I did not want to wean him. Before going to LLL meetings I had assumed it was dangerous to the fetus to continue nursing throughout a pregnancy. My LLL leader assured me that many nursing mothers become pregnant and continue to breastfeed.
I had spotting at the beginning of my pregnancy and was concerned about miscarriage but continued to nurse. When I visited my OB and told him I was nursing, he said that was fine until I was 5 months. I told him that I did not plan on weaning and he said he did not want a baby born at 30 weeks. We continued to talk and he said that as long as I paid attention to my contractions later in pregnancy that would be okay.
I read the information in The Breastfeeding Answer Book and during my next prenatal visit asked my OB if he'd read the research on nursing during a pregnancy. He said "no". I also asked how many patients of his had nursed during pregnancy and he said "none". So now I know that I am his test case. I am very glad I had the LLL information because it would have been very difficult to wean my son.
I am now 32 weeks pregnant. Things are progressing fine.

By two, one can usually communicate, "Mom isn't comfortable with that," and receive some understanding. We trimmed down the length of feeds during the pregnancy, because it wasn't something I enjoyed, and my child grew old enough to be sympathetic. I actually nursed my middle child throughout labor with my third child. That was intense, but he needed that particular connection with me. So I nursed him.

Now I am pregnant with my 3rd and still nursing the other two!!! I had a feeling it was going to happen!

[We need information on] positioning the toddler so that there was less tension on the nipple. I personally found the nipple pain so overwhelming that I had to stop my toddler nursing at night.

My first son weaned at 22 months when I was 6 months pregnant. I really wanted to nurse through my pregnancy and to tandem nurse. I was unprepared for the awful feelings of anger I felt during nursing and intense nipple pain. I could not continue nursing at night. I tried but after a few minutes I would have to take him off and he would cry, then I would cry. Luckily he quickly understood that it was painful and he nursed only before and after nap time. I could tolerate daytime nursing if he didn't wiggle while nursing and if I distracted myself by watching tv. The nipple pain was sometimes so intense that I had to bite my hand to distract myself. My son eventually decided nursing wasn't worth it anymore with all the limits. He just said "no" one day when he woke up. I was so sad and had to call a friend to talk about how bad I felt. He nursed a few times after that when he was out of control with a tantrum and needed help to calm down.

I would like to see more information on breastfeeding through a pregnancy, and tandem breastfeeding, including quotes or personal experiences from women who have both enjoyed it and who found it difficult. It would be helpful to include medical references as to the safety of doing so since we find that so many doctors tell mothers they must wean if they are pregnant.

What I really think would be appreciated is more about nursing through pregnancy and tandem nursing. Anything at all that has been researched would be helpful, as well as some anthropological and sociological information about the practices. I have attached below an essay/article I wrote about my experiences nursing through pregnancy (I am now tandem nursing and hope to be writing more about this experience). There are so many mothers out there right now struggling to find information and support about these things - I know that I still really struggle with it. I feel that my older son deserves to be nursed still, but my body is saying NONONO. It is very difficult.

Some research on nursing while pregnant

I first nursed through a miscarriage when my oldest daughter was just 2 years old. I felt antsy while nursing, but had taken the attitude of one day at a time, and my oldest was not anywhere near ready to wean, not really knowing at that time she was allergic to dairy, too (another whole story!) I had sore nipples, but not breasts, all three times, for varying lengths of time. Seems like the last time was the longest, maybe almost to the end, before delivery? Making sure the nursling was positioned properly, like you would a newborn, seemed to make a difference - make sure have as much of areola as possible, and no acrobatics... I remember feeling very glad I hadn't tried to wean my oldest during that second pregnancy, as I did miscarry it. (My doctor believes it was a blighted ovum, looking at records, not having been there, so nursing could not have caused a problem.) I don't remember much about nursing during the third pregnancy, except expressing milk out and wondering if it was supposed to be clear. I don't believe it would be colostrum, as it wasn't yellow.

My middle child did rather well during pregnancy, when sometimes I would be so sore, I would ask her to nurse shortly, and pull her off and she would cry a few seconds but then go to sleep. My first daughter would have never done that! She would have fought me to nurse.

Just found out I am pregnant while tandem nursing a 20 month old and a 3 1/2 yr old....I would like to contact anyone else who found themselves in this situation. .... How "rare" is this? I felt very confident that I could nurse ONE through a pregnancy, but real unsure about TWO!

On nursing while pregnant, I want to say that I think it is fine and I know many people who have done it and it is great to keep the older baby content, etc. but I personally could not stand nursing when I got pregnant. My middle child (a boy) was/is fairly high need and loved nursing, but I got pregnant with his sister when he was 16 months. I get horrible morning sickness when I'm pregnant, and it was summer, and I was dehydrating. I couldn't keep liquids down at all. I felt bad because I couldn't meet my son's very reasonable desire to nurse, but I really dreaded it. I felt sore and nauseated and tired, so I weaned him halfway through my pregnancy. It was hard on us both, but physically and mentally I couldn't keep going. I still have regrets because I see many LLL moms nursing their 2 1/2 year old sons, and I know that if I hadn't gotten pregnant I'd be nursing my son too. I think it would help because he doesn't talk, and it would be a great way to stay connected to him. He has tried to nurse since the new baby was born two months ago, but he doesn't remember how. I let him try whenever he wants (it's not very often).

Miscarriage

When I had what was my second miscarriage at 11 weeks gestation(the first occurring many years ago not while lactating) , no one ever mentioned that breastfeeding was a factor. My nursing toddler came with me and husband to ER because I was hemorrhaging. I had lost so much blood I had severely low BP and tachycardia. I had to be put on heart monitor. After awhile, my daughter wanted "milkie " but when I tried she was bothered by the heart moniter. She also looked worried. She stayed at the hospital that whole day. Nurses brought my 14 month old food to snack on while my gown became drenched with milk. As soon as I was released and we were home, my daughter cozied up with me for a feeding marathon!

Premature labor

As for twin pregnancy, my doctor was proud that I was continuing to breastfeed. He did recommend lots of water and doubling up on my prenatal vitamins. When my in utero loss occurred, even my perinatologist did not correlate breastfeeding to loss. Concerning preterm labor, he felt that the loss itself was most likely to trigger labor. The basic feeling was that since I had been breastfeeding all along, it was not going to be a factor. After the loss occurred, I did wonder if breastfeeding was a factor. I now am confident that it was not. I have spoken with many women who lose a twin in utero that were not lactating. We had an autopsy done that did not reveal a medical cause. Through ultrasound evaluation, we were told that the location of the placenta and positioning of babies caused a cord accident. My surviving twin was born preterm, at 36 weeks, his pediatrician said it was his saving grace he was born when he was because there were scavenger cells on his side of the placenta.