14 facts about breasts during pregnancy
During pregnancy, hormones ensure that our body changes enormously – including our breasts. After all, they will soon have an important task: they feed the baby and provide it with important nutrients. But what exactly can change on our breasts during and after pregnancy? We’ll tell you!
The American professor and gynecologist Mary Jane Minkin revealed to the online portal BuzzFeed 14 facts about breasts during and after pregnancy that you probably always wanted to know:
- Your breasts may be “lumpy”:
The mammary glands are the reason why your breasts can appear uneven and downright lumpy. “The breasts look like a bunch of bunches of grapes,” describes Mary Jane Minkin. No wonder, because the mammary glands are “crammed” with milk during and after pregnancy. - Your nipples get longer and darker:
Estrogen has an effect on our pigments. Therefore, when you carry a child under your heart, your nipples become significantly darker. And yes, they also tend to get longer, confirms Mary Jane Minkin. - During pregnancy, first milk can run out of your breasts:
the expert advises wearing nipple pads or similar during pregnancy – to prevent “nasty” surprises. Because the colostrum, or colloquially called first milk, can already leak out. How do you recognize it? The colostrum has a consistency similar to milk but is yellowish in colour. - A hot shower — or sexual stimulation — can encourage your breasts to leak:
“Hot water can cause increased blood flow to the nipples. Your breasts get pumped up with heat and milk comes out,” explains Mary Jane Minkin. Meaning, if your nipples get sexually excited, your mammary glands will also get excited. - Expect your breasts to be very itchy: Do
your breasts feel like thousands of ants are crawling on them? That’s not unusual. Because your breasts gain weight and the skin is stretched as a result. This is a major irritation for your breasts and they start to complain by starting to itch. - Some women’s nipples get hairy:
Some women may experience hair growth on their nipples . With so many hormones in the body, no wonder! - Some also get stretch marks on their breasts:
It’s not uncommon for your breasts to get stretch marks, after all they keep growing and expanding like crazy. Many women use lotion to prevent this. But the expert confirms: unfortunately it will not stop the stretch marks! - It will be normal for your nipples to chafe while breastfeeding:
this also varies from woman to woman, of course, but is not uncommon. The gynecologist advises: “Women should rub lanolin on their nipples. I also encourage her not to hold the baby on the breast for too long as it irritates the nipples tremendously. Yes, the baby is hungry, but it usually only takes about seven minutes. I wouldn’t let the baby suckle for more than ten minutes per breast.” - Your breasts can produce different flavors of milk depending on what you eat: The taste of your milk depends on your diet. For example, if you eat a lot of spicy food, your milk may also taste a little spicy. You can read more interesting facts about breast milk here.
- The veins in your breasts will become good acquaintances of yours:
the veins in your breasts will be clearly recognizable due to increased blood flow. - One breast can be larger than the other, and one breast can produce more milk than the other:
most babies prefer one breast to the other. This can lead to one breast growing larger than the other, the expert confirms. - Your breasts will hurt when you stop breastfeeding:
Of course, we don’t like to hear what Mary Jane Minkin told us: “Once you decide to stop breastfeeding, it takes a few days for the milk to ‘dry up’… and that’s quite it pretty painful.” The doctor recommends avoiding hot showers and instead cooling your breasts with ice. - And when you stop breastfeeding, your breasts will shrink:
Many women find that their breasts become smaller after breastfeeding. They often become smaller than they were before pregnancy and lose strength. Not a pleasant side effect, but there are really worse things 😉 - All of our breasts produce milk during pregnancy… and some produce milk even though they’re not pregnant:
some women who adopt a child and would like to breastfeed the child themselves can do so with the help of certain medications. This does not work for every woman, but there are patients for whom it has been successful: they have been able to breastfeed their baby without ever having been pregnant.