What Happens To Your Body During Pregnancy That Supports Breastfeeding?
Our heart pumps blood through our veins (thankfully!) without our acknowledgement, our effort or our permission…our brain sends thoughts into our consciousness (perhaps, not so thankfully!) without our acknowledgement, our effort or our permission. Similarly, as pregnant mothers, our bodies make accommodations for our growing baby - our blood supply increases, our bodies expand (in ways and spaces that we never imagined possible) and our breasts prepare to nurture our newborn.
At about 16-20 weeks of pregnancy, your body begins to make your newborn’s first food - colostrum. Colostrum is perfectly designed for your baby as:
it is dispensed in teaspoon-sized servings filling your baby’s teaspoon-sized tummy
it transfers your antibodies serving as your newborn’s first vaccination, and
it acts as a laxative- flushing out any bilirubin build-up and turning baby’s black, tar-like meconium to green and finally, to mustard-colored, seedy stool.
Colostrum is truly “liquid gold”! If you are undecided about breastfeeding, I urge you to engage in skin-to-skin after birth, and encourage you to allow your newborn to self-attach and get drops of colostrum. If you then decide to breastfeed, your baby and you will be set up for success. If you then decide not to breastfeed, your baby has received the benefits of colostrum and your body has received assistance in birthing the placenta and received a dose of oxytocin (the “love” hormone).
Other bodily changes that occur during pregnancy and support breastfeeding include:
Growing and darkening areolas (the circles around the nipple); this occurs to assist your newborn in finding your nipples to breastfeed. Babies’ vision is blurred until later in life, so your enlarged, darkened areolas act as bulls-eyes for baby.
Small bumps on your areolas (called Montgomery glands); these sebaceous glands secrete an oil that smells like your amniotic fluid (which is unique to every mother and is the same liquid baby has been taken practice sips of in utero) to entice your newborn to the breast
Note that some pregnant mothers notice visible, physical changes in their breasts and some do not; some pregnant mothers notice a discharge of colostrum and some do not. These are not future indicators of breast milk quantity, or successful or unsuccessful breastfeeding.
We have no control or choice in how our bodies change once we are pregnant, and we do have control and choice in how we decide to feed our newborn once he or she is earthside. If you are interested in breastfeeding your baby, please reach out to a lactation professional for education. Being educated about our bodies empowers us to make informed choices for ourselves and our growing families.
We deserve to make choices from empowerment, rather than from confusion and desperation!
