Breastfeeding While Pregnant

In most cases, it is safe to continue breastfeed your baby or toddler while pregnant.  If you have a history of miscarriage or preterm labor (labor before 37 weeks of pregnancy), then many lactation consultants and health care providers will recommend weaning your nursling. However, several experts on miscarriage and preterm labor say that there has been no connection found between breastfeeding during pregnancy and miscarriage/preterm labor.  If you are experiencing pregnancy complications or bleeding, please discuss it with your health care provider.

If you generally eat well, you should be able to successfully nourish your unborn baby, your nursing child and yourself.  Here is a webpage which lots of good info about nutrition.  If you are anemic, vegan or on a special diet, concentrate on getting enough calories and supplement any nutrients that may be lacking in your diet.

At some point in your pregnancy, your milk supply may decrease.  This sometimes happens around the 3 months mark but it may happen earlier or later.  Increased nursing frequency will not bring your supply back as it would if you were not pregnant.  If your nursling is younger than 1 year, you may need to supplement.  Many nurslings adapt to the decrease just fine and keep on nursing.

I did want to mention breastfeeding agitation/aversion.  I have personally experienced a mild version of this while nursing 4 of my children during pregnancy.  Some women experience it so intensely, it is similar to D-MER (Dysphoric Milk Ejection Reflex). Some ideas for mild symptoms: reduce the length of nursing sessions, use childbirth breathing techniques, use some sort of distraction.


References:
(1) Breastfeeding while Pregnant - Ask Dr. Sears
(2) Breastfeeding During Pregnancy and Tandem Nursing: The Official FAQ - Kellymom
(3) The Official FAQ: Nursing During Pregnancy - Kellymom (CNML Leaders: really nice one sheet summary to give out to nursing moms you meet or to give out at CNML meetings!)

Recommended Book on the topic:
Adventures in Tandem Nursing by Hillary Flower

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