Will Exercise Decrease My Milk Supply?

My sister-in-law is breastfeeding her 12 month old and just ran a marathon last week so I would say "no" exercise will not decrease your supply. When I was breastfeeding I would notice that my supply was low if I didn't drink enough water so I assume that exercise might cause some dehydration, but that is easily remedied by drinking enough water.

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You are awesome, jogging mama! You are also awesome for having your babe at HOME! I'm not that brave, but I wish I was!! :) I'm a runner too, and I started running again about 6 weeks after my big boy was born. I breastfed him exclusively for 12 months. Although I had decreases in milk supply here and there, I do not believe they were ever related to exercise. More likely, it was a result of my son nursing less (they do need less milk when they start eating solids). Make sure that you are eating the calories that you've burned, because you need a lot more cals than you even needed when you were preggers! You'll be excited to see your body start to get back to its normal shape!

Good for you and keep it up! I just finished my third marathon 19 months after childbirth!

A.

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i have heard that it can decrease, but i didnt do any strong exersizing or anything so.... i cant say if it did or not.
just take it day by day. walking is just as good as jogging, and less strenuous on your breasts.

www.askdrsears.com might have the answers you are looking for.

but for SURE dont diet, and dont deprive yourself of anything! its good to be fit, and active, but not good to feel like you cant eat when you are hungry! im sure you are fine about that though!

congrats for birthing at HOME! :D :D its a good thing! i might have considered that - especially now knowing how easy my labor went - but im an hour from a reliable hospitol - so i would have had WAY to many fears - as it was i dialated to 4.5 and only went into labor that i could feel after getting all set up in my hospitol room. it was like i gave myself permission to finally go into labor! LOL.

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You are correct. Studies do not show effect of exercise on milk production. These are old MIL tales. :) A reasonable amount of exercise will not effect your supply. Studies have shown that the amount of lactic acid in the milk is minimal and does not harm or impact the baby's preference. Just remember to drink lots of fluids, and you may want to nurse right before your run just for your own comfort.

Contrary to pervasive common thought, pregnancy and breastfeeding are not conditions which render women incapable or frail. Our bodies are made to handle these quite well. You should have seen the looks my friend (a national champion runner) would get at the gym when she exercised while pregnant. Strangers would scold her. She is breastfeeding now and just ran a half marathon last weekend. (oh, and her husband is a doctor)

Best of luck with the running and your baby. And kudos to you for taking the time to do something good for you.

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Unless your baby seems to mind the taste change, I wouldn't worry about waiting to nurse. I found that exercise increased my milk supply because of the increase in body heat. I usually nursed my daughter immediately after working out, and she seemed to enjoy the after-workout milk. If you are running often, you may want to make sure you are getting enough calories. But, at this point your milk should be well established. I stopped nursing my 1 1/2 year old 6 weeks ago, and I still have milk.

By the way, my daughter was born at home too, but not on purpose. Next time we're hoping for a home-birth. :)

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L. - I read the responses you've gotten so far, some say it doesn't effect them and others tell you that it will. Rare is the woman who can exercise and therefore burn extra calories and not have it effect her milk supply. When you are pregnant you need an extra 500 calories a day to carry the pregnancy, but when lactating you need an extra 1000 calories a day! Some of my moms have also had decreased milk supply just by dieting and cutting the fats out of their diets. So, you have to watch and make sure your baby isn't losing it's food source here. I greatly respect the women who put their baby's first, as I see you are wanting to do, and wait to diet or exercise very much until the baby is on solids also. So - start slowly and build up, but don't just go out and jog 3 times a week if you weren't already doing so...my 2 cents worth. I am a midwife and have delivered hundreds of babies at home also. Congrats!

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Hey there,
I am a jogging mama, who is no longer lactating (by choice though). Jogging will not hurt your milk supply at all, in fact, moderate exercise can help increase your milk supply. You would be just fine running 20-30 minutes even everyday.
You are correct about the lactic acid, you will want to wait about an hour after exercise before nursing to allow the lactic acid levels to go back to normal. Stretching after running will help the levels go down faster. The lactic acid doesn't hurt the babies, just might make them not like the taste of your milk.
I started running after 4 weeks and nursed all the way till 7 months and it never created any problem for me with nursing or milk supply!!
It is so good for your health and mind to exercise after you have a baby, so keep at it!!!

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Hi,
I jogged a few times a week while nursing my daughter who is now 16 months old. I started running again when she was about 3-4 months old and did it the entire time I nursed her (until 14 months). I experienced no adverse affects. It did not decrease my milk supply at all.

Good luck!
D. :)

I nursed my son for almost a year and started jogging as soon as I felt able. I tried to jog 5 days a week about 3 miles at a time and had absolutely no problems with milk supply. I just tried to not run when I was "full" and wore a good sports bra. Happy running!

Exercise? Why the rush? :)

I did not jog, but eventually I did walk for 20 minutes to drop off the baby (who will be 2 years old soon) at daycare before going to work (M - T). So I walked briskly while pushing the stroller (especially if I was running late), which had my pump in it as well, dropped off the baby and then walked normally to work for another 10 minutes or so while carrying my pump (which I found heavy!). Sometimes I did have to rush to work also.
And no, I did not notice my milk supply diminishing. I did not diet and drank tons of water.
If you are really worried about it though, why not start with 20 minutes of walking instead of jogging? It sounds like you have not started exercising so it might be a good idea to ease into it. I remember the first few weeks of walking the baby... my whole body hurt... you'd think I was working out hard core! I think that as long as you eat enough calories to produce milk, you should be okay. Just don't forget your fluids!

When my son was 5 mos. old I began exercising 45 min./day 6 days a week. 3 days of kickboxing and 3 days of resistance exercises. I continued to nurse my son until he was just over a year old with no problems with decreased milk supply. Just for my own comfort, I had to pump before class and wear 2 sports bras, but other than that, it was fine for me.

As long as you're getting plenty of water and eating enough calories, exercising will not decrease your supply in any way. If you're at all worried about it, you could see if your insurance will cover a visit to a dietician/nutritionist who can help you figure out exactly how many calories you need to eat to keep up your production. When I was breastfeeding, I ended up losing almost 40 lbs between breastfeeding, exercising, and eating right. It never hurt my production. In fact, even at the end I was producing enough to feed my child several times over! If your insurance won't cover that, they may be willing to cover a visit with a lactation consultant who might be able to answer some questions for you about it. But definitely, if you want to begin an exercise program, do it and don't worry that production will go down.

I did both, diet and exercise, to lose my baby weight and it did not seem to affect my supply. My daughter was 9 months old when I started and was already eating solids so I was not super concerned with it anyways. I know that my doctor told me to just watch it and add in more calories of healthy fats if my milk supply started to decrease. My daughter also never seemed to complain about the taste either, and I would nurse her right when I got done working out. But here I am prenant, she is still nursing, and I'm sure there is nothing there, but she still likes to anyways!

From what I know, as long as you are taking in enough calories and water you should be fine. Good luck!

Just make sure you are drinking enough fluids and you should be just fine. I like to nurse or pump before going for a run so I can run and shower before another feeding is needed. Just think drink drink drink! Good luck with the running.

No, don't worry about it. Just remember to drink plenty of fluids. I played softball and volleyball while pregnant and nursing, and it was at least an hour at a time three x a week, and then all day Saturday tournaments. I never had a problem with my milk supply.

I am breastfeeding and i work out about an hour every other day and I have not had a problem. I think the only worry is not drinking enough water to keep up with the water you loose when you sweat. I would drink plenty of water and you shouldn't have a problem.

When I started exercising again, I just watched my calorie intake (to make sure I took in couple hundred extra calories on exercises days) and made sure that I took in some extra fluid to make up for what I sweated off. It did not affect my supply at all and I never really paid attention to the timing for the lactic acid build-up and never noticed a problem.

I started exercising 6 weeks after having my son. I go to the gym about 2-4 times a week. I have even nursed him immediately after getting home. I have never had a problem with milk supply or him not liking the taste. I drink plenty of water. Water, Water, Water!! I try to have him nurse before we go so I don't have any pain and I have to wear 2 sports bras for extra support. Everyone's body is different but for me, I've never had any problems. Happy jogging!

The most important thing about breast feeding is staying hydrated. Your body needs way more liquid than normal to keep up the milk supply and excersize uses some of that up so just make sure you are drinking about 3-4 times what you would normally. Good luck.

I breastfed my son for the 1st year of his life. Six weeks after his birth I was back playing broomball on my indoor team (lots of running, sweating, and lactic acid)and soon after started back with my hors jumping lessons. I always made sure to stay well hydrated and I waited to nurse him until one hour after my games were finished. I also never "dieted". I never experienced a decrease in milk supply, but I had a very heavy supply in general (I could have fed 2 babies). Personally I think generalizations don't work well here and that you should ease into doing some jogging and see how it goes.

Your prolactin receptors (they decide how much milk to produce) get set around 16 weeks, but shouldn't be affected by exercise. They're set by how much/often your baby nurses. I've heard about the lactic acid too - it may or may not affect your little one.