Is it possible while breastfeeding: to go to the bathhouse, to exercise, not to eat meat, to have the flu? Imaginary and true prohibitions for nursing mothers

The position of a nursing mother obliges …

There are circumstances that definitely do not fit in with the position of a nursing woman – for example, the use of strong “intoxicants”, smoking, the use of drugs that are incompatible with lactation, hard physical labor, stress, etc. In these cases, the prohibition is clear, obvious and does not cause any doubts: either breastfeeding, or – all of the above, the third is not given.

But not always the answer to the question “Is it possible for a nursing mother or categorically not?” obvious. There are imaginary prohibitions – their observance does not have a compelling medical reason, but among nursing women they are common all the time. And it happens exactly the opposite – what nursing mothers practice everywhere, in fact, should not be done …

We will deal with the most popular questions related to breastfeeding, which were “voiced” by our readers on the Healthy Food Near Me forum:

1. Is it possible to sleep on your stomach while breastfeeding …

This is one of the most common prohibitions regarding breastfeeding – supposedly, a nursing mother should never sleep on her chest and stomach. Otherwise, if you believe the common opinion, a mother who loves sleeping on her stomach will have milk stagnation and lactational mastitis (inflammation of the mammary gland) will begin to develop.

IN FACT. You can sleep on your stomach. The only warning caveat is that it is advisable to sleep without a bra, so as not to create additional pressure on the milk ducts. In addition, you should not sleep on your stomach all the time – in this case, there really is a risk of lactostasis (stagnation of breast milk), especially if the mother is from the category of lush breasts, which is called “blood with milk”.

2. Can a nursing mother … be separated from her baby and skip feedings?

Very often in the ordinary mind, the image of a nursing mother is a woman exhausted by household chores, with a baby literally hanging on her chest around the clock! And even not alone … In fairness – many mothers themselves agree to such a “dairy slavery”, but there are those who want to live an active life – work, travel, sometimes have fun – but with the help of loved ones or a nanny to keep breast-feeding. How to be such women?

IN FACT. A nursing mother is also a person. And not just the “dairy farm”, which is carried everywhere with the baby at the breast. If a mother wants to continue developing her career, and also wants to sometimes see friends, go to fitness or to the premiere at the opera, then this does not turn her into a “echidna”. A well-organized process of expressing and freezing breast milk is quite capable of freeing up several hours a day for a young mother, while not infringing on the “milk” rights of the child.

3. Can a nursing mother … feed her baby if she has a high temperature?

It is difficult to imagine a nursing woman who, within 1-2 years, manages to never “catch” a cold or flu, not get hurt, and even trite not overheat in the sun. But for some reason, among mothers who practice breastfeeding, the rule is very common “if I have a high temperature, I will not breastfeed the baby.” Is this taboo fair?

IN FACT. Even if you have a fever, breastfeeding your baby can and should be done. We will not be unfounded, but we will give a scientific justification: even having caught the flu, in the process of milk production, the mother’s body manages to saturate the “baby food” with powerful immunoglobulins, which perfectly suppress this very influenza virus in milk. Since the “control center” of breastfeeding is in the brain, the signal to develop and “inject” immune defenders into breast milk comes long before you even realized that you caught the flu. This means that there is no reason to stop breastfeeding if your temperature rises. Rather, even on the contrary – during the period of general illness with colds and flu, it is worth breastfeeding the child more often and longer …

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4. Is it possible while breastfeeding … to apply cosmetics to the skin of the breast?

On the one hand: the skin of the breast during lactation is in dire need of cosmetic care (it is difficult to think of a more relevant time to fight for the firmness and elasticity of the skin of the breast), but on the other hand, there is a possibility that the child will “eat” an ointment, cream, serum or other cosmetic products that can hardly be called a “dessert” acceptable to the baby … In this situation, many nursing mothers choose not to take risks and generally refrain from using any caring cosmetics for the skin of the breast. But in vain!

IN FACT. Cosmetics can be dangerous to the health of a nursing baby only if it gets into his body. How can this happen in a situation where a nursing mother applies any cosmetic products to her breasts? In two ways: either the baby “licks” the cream or ointment from the skin of the breast (or rather, from the nipple), or the cosmetics will penetrate directly into breast milk. The second option is completely excluded, since no cosmetic product has yet been invented that can penetrate the skin to such depths. And you can exclude the first option yourself – you just need to make sure that the cosmetic does not get on the areola and nipple.

A nursing mother not only can, but also must take care of the health, beauty and elasticity of her breasts. Indeed, in a family, as a rule, an infant is not the only person who needs this breast …

5. Can a nursing mother … be a vegetarian?

It is generally accepted that breast milk will not be sufficiently complete and as useful as possible if there is an obvious deficiency of animal proteins in the diet of a nursing mother. Is it so?

IN FACT. Of course, protein is extremely important for the growth and development of your baby. But not by itself, but only as a supplier of essential amino acids. They are called irreplaceable because they cannot be reproduced in the human body by synthesizing any substances, but can only enter it in a ready-made form from the outside. For children, 10 amino acids are indispensable: valine, isoleucine, leucine, lysine, methionine, threonine, tryptophan, phenylalanine, arginine and histidine. Without a regular supply of these amino acids, the baby will develop abnormally.

Now about the main thing – we can get a full set of essential amino acids only from protein of animal origin (products: meat, fish, eggs, “milk”). While a protein of plant origin is always characterized by an incomplete composition of essential amino acids, one is not enough, or even seven to eight or nine at once … Therefore, the need of the human body (including the growing body of a baby) for vital amino acids can be fulfilled in two ways – eat products of animal origin or be able to correctly combine plant foods in such a way that you regularly collect the necessary set of essential amino acids for yourself “for lunch”. Experienced vegetarians usually know how to do this. And if a nursing mother can be ranked among such gurus of vegetarianism, then there is no need to worry about the health of her baby.

Let us remind beginner vegetarians that for a full-fledged synthesis of proteins in the human body, the presence of a complete set of essential amino acids is necessary – if even one is not enough, then all the rest will not be used. As a rule, for a person who is on a plant-based diet, it is especially difficult to extract methionine, which is extremely small in plant food. (All other amino acids can be easily obtained from cereals and legumes, as well as fruits, nuts, and seeds.) Here’s a secret: To get methionine, eat Brazil nuts and sesame seeds more often.

If a nursing mother is a vegetarian with knowledge and experience, then with common sense she may well feed her baby with no less full-fledged milk than a meat-eating mother. But if you are still a beginner vegetarian, then the period of breastfeeding a baby is not the best time to experiment.

6. Is it possible to breastfeed … feed my baby during her period?

There is an opinion that at the onset of “critical days” breast milk of a nursing woman becomes extremely unpleasant in taste and can harm the baby’s health due to changes in the hormonal background in the mother’s body (including in breast milk). In this regard, many nursing mothers, with the arrival of the first menstruation from the moment of birth, stop breastfeeding, transferring the baby to mixtures and the first complementary foods. Are they right?

IN FACT. Today, it is reliably known that during menstruation (which, as a rule, resumes six months to a year after the birth of a baby, regardless of whether you are breastfeeding or not), neither the taste, nor the composition, nor the amount of breast milk changes in any way. A child can carry himself a little restlessly, not at all because he felt tasteless, bitter or unsatisfying. And because during menstruation in women, as a rule, the breasts become denser – therefore, it becomes more difficult for the baby to suck out mother’s milk during the “critical days”. But beyond this circumstance, no problem exists!

7. Is it possible for a nursing mother … to actively engage in fitness?

Fitness fans know that with vigorous exercise, during anaerobic glycolysis, the level of lactic acid (lactate) in the body rises sharply. The intense and constant formation of lactic acid leads to the so-called acidification of the body (the pH level decreases). Based on these data, an unspoken rule was born prohibiting nursing mothers from doing fitness – they say that a high level of lactic acid in the body will negatively affect lactation: milk will start to taste bitter, its composition will change, and gradually the baby will stop breastfeeding.

IN FACT. In recent years, doctors in many countries have been conducting regular research on the impact of fitness on a woman’s health, including breastfeeding. And they came to the conclusion that sport does not have any significant negative resonance on feeding and milk quality. The fact is that with a reasonable training schedule, lactic acid simply does not have time to “saturate” breast milk – already in the first hour after training, it is almost completely excreted from the body. And the insignificant amount of acid that still gets into mother’s milk does not affect the taste of the “product” or its composition to any significant extent.

Adjust your workouts so that the interval between the end of the fitness load and the start of feeding is 60 minutes or more – and then playing sports will only benefit you and your baby.

A reasonable schedule of fitness training for a nursing mother should be understood as: either one-hour sessions 2-3 times a week, or daily loads, but no more than 30-40 minutes.

8. Can a nursing mother … not wear a bra?

It is widely believed that a heavy mother’s breast is not filled evenly without proper support (in the form of a special or regular bra) – the lobes of the mammary gland located at the bottom of the breast replenish “milk reserves” faster and in greater volume than the upper ones. That, following simple logic, should in the worst case – lead to lactostasis (stagnation of milk), and in the “best” – once and for all ruin the shape of a woman’s breast.

9. Is it possible while breastfeeding … to visit the sauna and bathhouse?

One of the weirdest breastfeeding misconceptions is the theory that going to a bath or sauna can heat the milk in your breast to the point that it spoils and loses its beneficial properties.

Special warnings: the steam room should be bypassed in the first 6-8 weeks after childbirth (namely, until postpartum vaginal discharge stops). In addition, you should not take a steam bath for those nursing mothers who had problems with the cardiovascular system before pregnancy.

Even if you are healthy and literally fit the definition of “blood and milk”, but during or after being in the steam room you notice mild signs of dizziness, migraines, shortness of breath or heart palpitations, you should postpone your “hot hobby” until those times when your baby begins to eat “like an adult.” Or – significantly reduce the temperature in the steam room, as well as the time spent in it.

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10. When breastfeeding … is it possible to bandage the breast to stop lactation?

For some reason, among nursing women, the belief is still widespread that for the natural completion of breastfeeding, it is enough to squeeze the breast tightly with an elastic bandage for several days. A very dangerous delusion!

IN FACT. Under no circumstances should a breastfeeding mother (and also a non-breastfeeding woman) be bandaged. The theory that the mammary gland, tightly squeezed by a bandage, simply loses its reservoir for milk and that is why it gradually ceases to be produced (since it has nowhere to accumulate) is erroneous and dangerous. Doctors have long proven the direct relationship between the production of breast milk and the needs of the baby through hormonal control of this process. In other words, from the fact that you squeeze the breast tightly, less milk will be produced. But stagnation of milk (lactostasis) or even inflammation (mastitis) in the squeezed ducts of the mammary gland are very likely.

Olga Rudneva, obstetrician-gynecologist, assistant of the Department of AGiR, FPK MR, RUDN University, consultant of AKEV: “Tight pulling of the breast to suppress lactation is not only unnecessary, but also traumatic, fraught with lactostasis and mastitis, practice. Gradually (usually the whole process takes 1-2 weeks) to reduce the frequency and duration of feedings or pumping, and milk production will fade away on its own according to the feedback mechanism: the brain will receive a signal that milk remains in the breast and will order to “stop production”.

Another compelling argument against bandaging your breasts to stop breastfeeding is that pulling too tightly can irreparably reshape your breasts. And obviously not for the better.

Breastfeeding mother and active woman: it’s easy to combine!

Of course, a nursing mother is a woman in a special position. She deserves increased care and attention in relation to herself, and at the same time, she completely subordinates her lifestyle, her desires and habits for the period of breastfeeding to the needs and well-being of the baby.

But this does not mean that a nursing mother, by definition, should become a “victim” of her position. If you love fitness, if you still want to actively take care of your figure and skin, if you have your own dietary and lifestyle preferences, it is not at all necessary to give up all this, following sometimes unjustified myths and prohibitions.

Fortunately, in the real world, a nursing mother has many useful helpers – from competent breastfeeding specialists to a whole list of all kinds of gadgets and gadgets that help modern women to combine the status of a nursing mother with their usual way of life. Without global restrictions for moms, and without prejudice to the full health and development of babies.