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Weaning
What Mom Can Expect from Her Body
By Shel Franco
Whether your child is 2 months old or 2 years old, weaning from the breast is a big deal. If you're like most mothers, you hash and re-hash the best time and the best way to bring an end to this intimate relationship. While you concentrate on how to prepare your child, don't overlook the impact that weaning will have on you.
What that impact will be depends a lot upon where you are in your breastfeeding relationship, where you want to be and how you intend to get there.
"The mother who has a baby who is nursing frequently and has a large supply built up will have more physical problems with abrupt weaning than the mother whose baby is only nursing once or twice a day and has a low supply to begin with," says Anne Smith, a lactation consultant in Winston-Salem, N.C.
Mary Jane Hoover, of Rochester, N.Y., once wore bras with tags that read 36C. Through the course of breastfeeding several children, her breast size has decreased considerably. "I now have 34AA," she says.
Before drawing the conclusion that breastfeeding caused this alteration in breast size, Jana McCarthy, a lactation consultant in Lake Forest, Calif., points out that breast changes have more to do with a woman's overall fat loss or gain before, during and after pregnancy and nursing. This can be easily illustrated by the fact that many bottle-feeding mothers experience changes in breast size.
McCarthy adds, "Most women find that their breasts look and feel kind of 'empty' and saggy for about six months after weaning." She also notes that the majority of women eventually return to their normal breast size.
