Exercise after pregnancy offers a host of healthful benefits to new and experienced mothers. No evidence suggests exercise while breast-feeding has negative effects on your milk supply, as your breast health is tied to your baby's growth and development. If you feel up to exercising, and your doctor gives you the OK, start slowly and build back up to your pre-pregnancy routine.
Effects on Your Body
Exercise during breast-feeding doesn't negatively impact the breasts. You may need to take proper precautions to ensure your nipples don't chafe against your workout clothes and cause discomfort. Otherwise, exercise imparts a host of benefits on a nursing mother's body. It, combined with breast-feeding, burns additional calories and helps you shed pregnancy weight. Exercise also improves your mood, energy levels and sleep quality. As you strengthen your muscles, you'll notice you can hold your baby in certain positions longer without tiring out your muscles or becoming uncomfortable. You'll also relieve stress sand tension as you work out.
Effects on Breast Milk
Exercise doesn't negatively impact your milk supply. It also doesn't negatively impact the milk itself, or your baby's growth and development, according to a study published in "Public Health Nutrition." Breast-feeding moms need only be aware of two concerns. First, exercise can cause your muscles to produce lactic acid, which makes your breast milk taste sour. Your baby might reject this milk, and he might not. Lactic acid isn't harmful to your baby. Second, exercise increases your fluid demands. If you're dehydrated, you could produce less milk. Be sure to drink water before, during and after workouts and throughout the day, and you shouldn't have a problem.
Tips
Check with your doctor before exercising if you had a cesarean section or other complications during delivery. You may need extra time to heal. Wear a support bra when you exercise and line it with nursing pads to absorb leakage and help cut down on chafing and irritation to moist skin. Pump your milk before you exercise to make yourself more comfortable. Pump your milk again 30 minutes after you exercise and throw it away in case it's been made sour by lactic acid, and your baby doesn't like the taste.
Sample Exercises
Walking is a good way to ease back into an exercise program. It's not jarring, so it doesn't cause a lot of breast movement. Swimming might also be a good exercise while you're breast feeding because it supports the weight of your body, making it very low- to no-impact. Yoga may be able to help you tone and strengthen your abdomen without straining your muscles enough to warrant high levels of lactic acid in your milk supply. Start slow and see how your body responds. If you're an experienced exerciser, or if you're breast-feeding older children, ease back into whatever routine you used before labor as your body allows.
References
- "Public Health Nutrition"; Breast-feeding Mothers Can Exercise: Results of Cohort Study; Zhao, et al; 2007
- "Pediatrics"; "Infant Acceptance of Breast Milk After Maternal Exercise"; Wright et al; 2002
- American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists: Getting in Shape After Your Baby is Born
- MayoClinic.com: Exercise After Pregnancy
