Breastfeeding does not lead to breast sagging ... despite what you may have been told.
“Don’t you know that breastfeeding will leave you with sagging breasts?”
How many expectant moms (and dads, too, perhaps) have been told that nursing is pretty much the kiss of death for perky breasts? And for those of us who were blessed with –at last! – cleavage during our pregnancies, the thought of those wondrous, womanly curves both deflating and drooping was pretty unnerving.
I’m delighted to let you know that this myth has been proven to be just that, and by no less a group of experts than the American Society of Plastic Surgeons.
A study titled “The Effect of Breastfeeding Upon Breast Aesthetics” was presented last October at the organization’s annual conference. It concluded that breastfeeding does not worsen breast sagging. The risk factors for breast sagging are a woman’s body mass index (BMI), the number of times she has been pregnant, a large pre-pregnancy bust, age, and smoking history.
“Youthful breasts” as the ASPS article describes them are just that: breasts that are youthful. Time and gravity take their toll, as do the other factors cited in the study. Although I don’t see the connection between smoking history and sagging breasts, I do find it interesting that genetics wasn’t mentioned as a possible factor.
A woman’s body undergoes dramatic changes during pregnancy and truly is never exactly the same afterward. It won’t necessarily be better or worse – just different. Thanks to the ASPS’s study, women can choose to nurse with confidence, knowing that if we discover that our post-weaning profiles may have lowered a bit, that it had nothing at all to do with breastfeeding.
Mom Topics 
