During pregnancy, your body undergoes many changes, some of which are more visible than others. Some may also be totally unexpected, such as the changes in your breasts, but what about your breasts after breastfeeding? Many mothers are concerned about how to recover their breasts after weaning, so let’s talk about it.

An increased breast volume is one of the most visible physical symptoms of pregnancy and usually happens in the first few weeks of the first trimester; breasts are more tender, get bigger, and feel heavier. In other words, you suddenly have the feeling of “having breasts,” and if you have small breasts, this change is usually very noticeable. In addition, because of pregnancy hormones, your nipple and areola will also change: they will grow larger and get darker in color.

After giving birth, the breasts continue to change to adapt to producing and providing human milk, which involves a noticeable increase in the volume of the mammary gland, especially on the third or fourth day after the baby is born. Additionally, if the nipples are flat or inverted, they may gradually start to come out as the weeks and months go by. All this modifies your breasts’ overall shape, volume, and appearance.

Breasts during pregnancy

But let’s take it step by step: during pregnancy, breasts undergo several changes because of the influence of hormones, and your body prepares for breastfeeding. These changes are mostly the result of the interaction between two key hormones: estrogen and progesterone.

• Increased blood flow: estrogen and progesterone stimulate an increased blood flow to the breasts, which causes the blood vessels to expand and increases the size of the mammary glands.
• Increased glandular tissue: during pregnancy, milk-producing cells and the structures that make them up develop and increase in number and size to prepare for milk supply.
• Increased fat tissue: In addition to the increase in glandular tissue, more fat also accumulates in the breasts, which helps provide greater support.
• Changes in the milk ducts: the milk ducts also enlarge and multiply to transport breast milk from the mammary glands to the nipple.
• Tenderness and nipple changes: Because of hormonal changes, your nipples and areolas may become darker and increase in size. Tender breasts or discomfort is also common during pregnancy.

Therefore, during pregnancy and even before starting breastfeeding, a woman’s breasts already experience changes, and this is independent of whether or not she will breastfeed. So, it’s a myth that breastfeeding changes your breasts; in fact, it’s the pregnancy that affects breasts much more than breastfeeding.

What about breastfeeding?

There are not as many changes for the breasts as during pregnancy, but they also occur and can be very evident. Generally, what you can expect is:

During breastfeeding, breasts undergo several changes to prepare and adapt to produce and deliver milk for the baby. These changes are controlled primarily by hormones and can vary for each woman. Listed below are some of the most common changes that happen in your breasts during breastfeeding:

• Swelling and increasing size: when mature milk comes in, which is usually 3 or 4 days after the baby is born, breasts swell and increase in size as the mammary glands fill with milk. If it gets complicated and there is fluid retention, this can become an edema, and breasts can get very hard and engorged. If this is your case, here is some useful information on how to manage this.
• Nipples: They also change as a result of the baby’s suckling. If they are flat or not very prominent, they may become “protruding” and will not return to their previous shape when you stop breastfeeding for good. If there is deeper nipple damage or sore nipples, and some tissue disappears, then it’s likely that your nipple will also show these “scars” and change in shape.
• Larger, darker areolas: The areolas, which are pigmented, darker, round areas around the nipple, tend to get bigger and darker during pregnancy and may remain so during your breastfeeding journey. However, the darker color will decrease over time, and some of the previous shades will return.
• More visible veins: the veins in the breasts, from the collarbone towards the nipples, may become more visible as the blood flow increases to support the milk supply. After a few weeks, they are no longer as visible as they were at the beginning.
• Asymmetric breasts: it is absolutely normal that one breast produces more milk than the other one, and it makes babies prefer the side that produces more. This leads to one breast side becoming much larger than the other one in a short time. It might make you feel uncomfortable, and you might look for solutions. It might seem like a good idea to stimulate the side that produces less (with a pump), but it’s actually not recommended because you are increasing your milk supply when your baby does not need it. Stimulating your milk supply when it’s not needed can lead to a big risk of mastitis because of the increased stimulation and because, once the breast is producing more, you might suddenly stop pumping. Remember that when you finish your breastfeeding journey, your breasts will even out again. You can find more information on asymmetrical breasts here.
• Involution: from 40 days or so after stopping breastfeeding, the cells and tissues that are responsible for making milk begin to self-destruct and break down. This makes the breasts lose volume and become soft. This is why breasts can feel soft and sometimes saggy after finishing breastfeeding. For others, the breasts just adjust if they have been asymmetric, and the loss of volume is not so visible. If breasts are very “empty”, it may take years to reshape as they fill again with fat.

As you can see, breasts change a lot from pregnancy to the end of breastfeeding. There are changes that cannot be reversed, and others can, but little by little, breasts will gradually reshape, and they will look more or less like the breasts you were familiar with.