How Breastfeeding Affects Your Pelvic Floor
Is it possible that breastfeeding your baby can actually impact your pelvic floor?? And the answer is…complicated!
The role of hormones…
Let me first explain what is going on hormonally to get a better picture how everything relates. During pregnancy, estrogen levels are about 30x higher than your normal, non-pregnant estrogen levels. Following the birth, estrogen drops DRAMATICALLY. This drop in estrogen triggers the rise of prolactin, which will overall allow for breastmilk production. As you continue to nurse, that estrogen level stays fairly low in order to continue allowing your body to produce breastmilk.
So, how important is estrogen to the vagina and other involved systems? I would say fairly important! When estrogen remains low for an extended amount of time, you may start to notice some changes…
Decrease in cervical mucus production
You may even stop having periods for the entire time you’re breastfeeding, or you may not. Everyone has a different threshold for when their period will return.
Vaginal tissue thinning
This is where the pelvic floor comes into play. With the vagina becoming thinner, it can contribute to overall weakness within the pelvic muscles.
Decreased blood flow to the vagina and clitoris
Aside from the obvious downside to this, another thing to consider is how your pelvic floor muscles work and respond with that reduced blood flow.
Low libido
What can we do?
While some of these changes may just be a little inconvenient to some, to others, you may wish to try different methods to combat them!
One of the best ways to address the reduced blood flow and weak pelvic floor muscles is to EXERCISE! And the best type of exercise to focus on at this time is progressive strengthening. Our core and pelvic floor require progressive strengthening and progressive loading in order to actually get stronger AND combat the effects low estrogen takes on our body. Another thing to consider…the longer you breastfeed, the longer your body is remaining in a low level estrogen state, the more potential long-term side effects from that low level you need to be aware of - like decreased bone density, muscle mass and overall strength. All the more reason to make exercise a part of your new postpartum routine! If you’re looking for a way to get started, I created a FREE Early Postpartum Workout resource just for you! Make sure to click the button below to download it and save for later.
And lastly…
Another option to consider for addressing the reduced cervical mucous is to utilize Vitamin E oil. This can be applied to the labia if you are experiencing a lot of dryness or even as a safe alternative for lubrication during intercourse. This by no means solves the problem, but it can significantly help during the time that you are choosing to breastfeed.
So what’s the consensus??
Alright, we know that low levels of estrogen can cause some changes, but does this mean that breastfeeding is actually CAUSING our pelvic floor issues??
Well, according to Lovejoy et al, breastfeeding after a vaginal childbirth was not associated with the development of stress urinary incontinence, pelvic organ prolapse or anal incontinence 1 to 2 decades after the first vaginal delivery…remember how I said this was complicated?!
To sum it all up, I don’t think we can blame all of our pelvic floor issues on breastfeeding alone (I think we already knew this…), but we do know that it contributes to lower levels of estrogen, and we do know that lower levels of estrogen can cause some noticeable symptoms! There still needs to be more research overall on the topic, but there is definitely a correlation to breastfeeding and the effect is has on the pelvic floor.
Mind Body Core
And if you’re looking for support with your pelvic floor, my Mind Body Core program is a 12 week program that targets the deep core and pelvic floor as well as encompasses a full body, holistic approach to healing! It gives you step by step guidance on healing the core, pelvic floor and common postpartum and pelvic floor dysfunctions AND if breastfeeding is something you are looking for a little further education on, my program also includes a BONUS section that has multiple extras, with one of them being breastfeeding 101 from a IBCLC. Click below to learn more!