Breastfeeding not linked to sagging breasts- Study

There are many myths surrounding factors affecting the shape of a woman's mammary glands.



Even though every woman’s journey to motherhood is different, each new mum must decide how to feed her newborn.

Some women begin breastfeeding when their babies are born but then stop soon afterwards for one reason or another, such as a lack of support, the need to return to work or not-enough production of breast milk as well as the stigma and myth surrounding breastfeeding.

Breastfeeding is often blamed for causing breast sagging also known as breast ptosis (drooping of the breasts).

Most young mothers believe that if they continue breastfeeding they will have saggy breasts, something that might spoil the look of their bodies and formerly perky breasts.

Although most studies, such as a research done by US National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health, prove that history of breast-feeding, weight gain during pregnancy and lack of participation in regular upper body exercise are not significant risk factors for breast ptosis, the majority of women still believe in this unproven hypothesis.

A 2008 study in the Aesthetic Surgery Journal reveals that breastfeeding is not a risk factor for breast ptosis.

Actually, pregnancy itself is probably what is responsible.

Mary Jane Minkin, MD, a clinical professor of obstetrics and gynaecology at Yale University School of Medicine was quoted to have said “Breasts increase in size with pregnancy and stay enlarged with breastfeeding, but they then slowly shrink back down once a woman is done nursing,” she says. “That weight loss and deflation of the breasts can make them sag.”

Based on that evidence there is a need to do away with those myths and negativism on breast-feeding and to develop a strong culture of breastfeeding as an optimal way to feed infants.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) recommends exclusive breast-feeding for the first six months, as research shows that babies are less susceptible to childhood diseases such as diarrhoea and pneumonia, and even HIV infection, if their mothers are infected.

Apart from that, there is also a new discovery that exclusively breast-fed children are less likely to become antisocial teens and adults.

According to this study published in the open-access medical journal, PLOS Medicine, last month, the longer mothers exclusively breast-feed their babies, the less likely their children are to develop behavioural problems, known as conduct disorders, at primary school age.

The study assessed more than 1 500 children at the Africa Centre for Population Health, in South Africa between 2012 and 2014 and found that children who were exclusively breast-fed for the first six months of their lives were about half (56 percent) as likely to experience conduct disorders as those who had not been exclusively breast-fed for that period.


Access to health-care professionals who are trained and committed to breastfeeding as well as increasing the community’s knowledge to support women who are doing so will be helpful in encouraging mums to breastfeed.

 Breastfeeding should not be hidden away, young women who observe others successfully feeding will be more likely to choose to breastfeed themselves.

Maybe you can stop worrying now...