After breastfeeding, both the fatty tissue and connective tissue in your breasts may shift. Your breasts may or may not return to their pre-breastfeeding size or shape. Some women's breasts stay large, and others shrink.
Despite views to the contrary, breasts are never truly empty. Milk is actually produced nonstop—before, during, and after feedings—so there's no need to wait between feedings for your breasts to refill.
"The production of breast milk and increased breast size can cause the breast skin and tissue to stretch," Kasper explains. "So after you finish breast feeding, the breasts become less dense and you notice that your breasts have an empty, sagging, or flattened look and feel." Fan-freaking-tastic.
Also, keep in mind that it is perfectly normal for a new mother's breasts to feel less full, or even “empty,” after the first 6-12 weeks of breastfeeding. This is part of the natural adjustment that your body makes from the first days of breastfeeding.
Some might feed every 90 minutes, whereas others might go 2–3 hours between feedings. Newborns should not go more than about 4 hours without feeding, even overnight.
Your breasts feel softer
This happens as your milk supply adjusts to your baby's needs. The initial breast fullness reduces in the first few weeks. At around 6 weeks, breast fullness is completely gone and your breasts may feel soft. This is completely normal and has no effect on your milk supply.
It is normal for a mother's breasts to begin to feel less full, soft, even empty, after the first 6-12 weeks. Many mothers have concerns about milk supply after the early weeks because they notice a drop in pumped amounts or they notice that their breasts feel “soft” or “empty”.
One of the most common causes of low breast milk supply is a poor latch. If your baby is not latching on to your breast the right way, they may not be able to get the milk out of your breasts very efficiently, which can cause your body to produce less milk.
Your healthcare provider would likely recommend that you continue to pump until your baby is able to breastfeed effectively and once you have a sufficient milk supply. Once this has happened, they will likely advise you to stop pumping and just breastfeed - and, of course, get plenty of rest in between.
Regular mixed feeding might make it more difficult to keep breastfeeding because it can interfere with keeping up a good supply of breastmilk. So if you're thinking about supplementing with formula, it's important to talk about it first with your midwife, child and family health nurse, lactation consultant or GP.
The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that moms feed their babies only breastmilk for the first six months. Then they say to keep breastfeeding for at least one year. After that, it depends on how long the mom and child want to keep it up. Keep in mind that breastfeeding even for a few weeks has benefits.
If a mother has consumed more than a moderate amount of alcohol, she may choose to wait 2 hours (per drink) to breastfeed her child, or feed her infant with milk that had been previously expressed when she had not been drinking, to reduce her infant's exposure to alcohol.
Mothers often feel that once their breasts are not engorged, or when they stop leaking milk between feedings, their milk supply has gone down. “In truth, what these things mean is that their milk supply has been regulated,” says Clarke.
When your breasts are empty, they will probably feel lighter and no longer uncomfortably full, as they might have at the start of the pumping session. You can also pick them up to see if they still feel heavy or full of milk.
While breastfeeding burns about 500-700 calories extra per day to fuel milk making, this may not always contribute to weight loss postpartum – many factors like pre-pregnancy weight, diet, physical activity level, etc will impact weight loss after birth (Institute of Medicine, 2002; Dewey, 1994).
3 to 4 Months. Babies who are breastfed have a 36% lower risk of SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome) which peaks at 2-4 months of age. Your baby's immunities are lowest between 2 to 6 months of age. By breastfeeding, you are providing him the best protection during this vulnerable time.
Breastfeeding, even just once a day, is worth it.
Your body is regulating your hormones and your endocrine system with stimulation. Second, the baby receives that contact, that transfer of energy from the parent, and being skin to skin continues to support heart rate, respiration, glucose levels and temperature.
However, after 6 months-of-age, most studies (>65%) reported breastfed infants to sleep less in the night-time and over 24 h compared to formula-fed infants. Furthermore, studies reported no association between the timing of introduction to complementary foods and infant sleep duration (<12 months-of-age).
Between nine and 12 months, your baby may drop another one or two feeds, as he starts getting more nutrition from solids, taking him down to two to three feeds a day. Often, it's the early morning feed that goes at this stage, as your baby may not be as hungry when he wakes up, and is able to wait until breakfast.
If there is a continual delay in letdown from the breast it can lead to reduced milk supply. Babies are also really in tune with how their mother's are feeling. Your baby can totally sense when you are sad, stressed, or anxious.