Please note – this blog is just based on my experience. I am not a doctor and I fully understand everyone’s journey and experience with breastfeeding will be very different.

How breastfeeding affects your mind, body – and as an exercising mama – your performance. 

When I had my first daughter 10 years ago, I really didn’t know how much involvement there was mentally and physically in breastfeeding.

I knew I wanted to breastfeed, but what I wasn’t aware of was the anxiety, exhaustion and the emotional rollercoaster breastfeeding would bring.  Let me assure you there are many beautiful parts to my breastfeeding journey. After all it is natural and what nature intended to do.

One thing that I will say to any new mama or pregnant mama, do not take too much advice from anyone else. I have fed 4 babies, all breast and with every single one of them I was faced with very different feeding challenges. Advice is great but do take it with a pinch of salt!

Whether you breast or bottle feed it’s entirely up to you. I have been extremely blessed to be able to have fed all four of my babies but looking back now I definitely should have stopped sooner than I did. Mainly because my mental health was taking a hit and I was really struggling with it.

What will breastfeeding do?

Most likely it will delay your return of periods which is great right? And to be honest I really liked that aspect of it. However, it didn’t help with my anxiety. Suppressed hormones and generally lower oestrogen and progesterone can play havoc with emotions and no one tells you about the dry vagina! I definitely became more aware of my mental health more after babies 3 and 4.

Here’s how it works: During the postpartum period, oestrogen levels decline after you deliver your placenta. Your placenta is the primary source and contributor to high oestrogen levels during pregnancy. On top of that, breastfeeding mimics menopause due to the production of the milk-producing hormone, prolactin, temporarily blocking oestrogen production, which keeps your oestrogen levels low.

Did you know?

Breastfeeding burns around an extra 500 calories a day. If I’m honest I think I pretty much ate what I wanted all day every day and still managed to maintain a healthy weight, it’s pretty taxing on the body! And as a long distance runner who was breastfeeding it got me intrigued to how and why I managed to smash all my PBs whilst breastfeeding.

There’s a few scientific reasons for this, and not just from breastfeeding alone. Did you know blood volume in pregnancy doubles? This continues to stay at an increased volume for almost 2 years postpartum, so for us cardio-specific mamas this may be the reason why your smashing those PBs!

Initially breast feeding is pretty hard, the engorged breasts, you might get mastitis which isn’t pleasant and the problems with latching on – it’s all way too much! But once I got my head around it, I personally loved it.

When it goes wrong…

I did love it except for baby number 3. I knew from the moment that he tried to latch on something wasn’t right. I was reassured he was fine but then went on to be told he had a severe tongue-tie and adenoid issues which meant he couldn’t latch or sleep longer than 45 mins until much later on. The tongue-tie was snipped but didn’t make one bit of difference unfortunately! Sleep cycles never improved and I was exhausted looking after a 5 year old, 3 year old and a newborn. I can only describe it as traumatic.

Looking back I should have accepted defeat and moved on to bottle feeding. This is something I would highly recommend to any mother trying to feed when the feeds are so challenging. Every feed was awful, crying, unsettling, not being able to latch on. It really doesn’t help your mental health and the battle of trying to feed with no enjoyment is real! Having a newborn is hard enough as it is – mamas you have to look after you!

Baby number 4 was a very different story and I went into it feeling a lot more aware and prepared for potential issues. I accepted I may not even go down the breastfeeding route again and that was ok for me. Your milk supply will be fully established from 3 weeks; this is when I introduced the bottle. My other children never took well to the bottle but I think it was partly because I was with them all the time and I didn’t persist long enough.

To any new mum out there – breastfeeding is a 24/7 job. Knowing this gave me quite a lot of anxiety. However, having the option of a bottle helped my anxiety massively. I would strongly recommend adding a bottle to any mother exclusively trying to feed their little one.

When it’s time to stop feeding.

No one tells you how hard this is emotionally. The hardest thing I think I’ve had to do. I was better prepared the more babies I’ve had but the emotional attachment is real. To think you can just stop overnight (which I genuinely thought with baby number 1 would happen) is wrong! I actually had to tape my boobs up as it was the only way I could show (my near toddler) they had gone on holiday 😂 This is not recommended and actually caused mastitis so definitely don’t do it!

The message I want to give with this blog is – be kind. Sometimes we think the best thing for our kids is one thing and in hindsight it’s not. Breast isn’t always best although I’m so blessed to have been able to do it with all four babies. I wouldn’t change it for the world.

Be aware of your mental health ladies; do what you can manage physically and emotionally. It’s hard – YOU matter ❤️

Natalie Bhangal is a personal trainer who has a passion for health, fitness and strength training. She trains beginners, athletes, pregnant and postnatal women, those with injuries and injury prone clients. For more information email natalie@graftfitness.co.uk