Breast Care Tips To Be Followed During Pregnancy

Prenatal

oi-Gowri Nandini

By Nandhini Devi

Thursday, June 16, 2011, 18:39

Pregnancy is one of the most cherished moments of a woman's life. We, as mammals are blessed with mammary glands or breasts to feed our offspring after they come into this world. So, during pregnancy our body undergoes a lot of physical and hormonal changes. The fat and milk glands start developing, which increases the size of the breast.

Proper breast care during pregnancy should be a mother's top priority. This will not make her face any problems in breast-feeding after childbirth. However, practicing a few breast care tips during pregnancy, will reduce chances of improper breast size or risk of not being able to feed the baby after its birth and even, breast cancer.

5 Breast Care Tips During Pregnancy -

1.During the first-trimester, increase in breast size is very rapid. Take care to wear a rightly sized bra, so that you do not develop stretch marks. Since this will continue to happen till you stop feeding the child, keep changing the bra accordingly.

2.Avoid wearing under-wired bras, as they might hamper the functioning of the milk glands. Similarly, wearing a very tight bra, may press down the nipple and block the milk ducts.

3.Overtime, as there is a regular increase in breast size, it tends to change colour and nipple too tend to darken. Sometimes the nipple might become too rough and might develop cracks. Lightly massage your nipples with coconut oil to bring down this problem. If it persists visit a doctor. Else, you will not be able to feed your baby later.

4.One pre-natal pregnancy problem that you might experience is colostrum discharge during the last trimester. This is normal. However, change the bra whenever necessary. If the nipple area remains too wet, it might lead to infection or cracks.

5.Some people have inverted nipples. These people can gently pull out the nipples, so that the nipples are in a correct position by the time the child is born. This is one important breast care tip that has to be followed during pregnancy.

Being ignorant about breast care during pregnancy might make breast-feeding a very painful process. This might lead you to stop breast-feeding your baby and resort to other methods like bottle-feeding. So, take care and follow the above pregnancy and breast care tips for an enjoyable motherhood.