6 Things That Happen to Your Breasts After Breastfeeding

Have you ever wondered what happens to your breasts after you stop breastfeeding? Read on to learn how your breasts may change.

Young girl in yellow dress drinking a bottle while holding on to her mom
Maria Manco/Stocksy

Pregnancy changes your breasts. They can grow a size (or two), nipples and areolas darken, veins become more visible, and stretch marks are common. Breasts begin to produce colostrum during pregnancy and several days after giving birth, they'll begin to produce mature breast milk.

But what happens to your breasts after breastfeeding or chestfeeding? How does lactation and, more importantly, weaning affect your breasts? Here, our experts answer all your questions about what happens to your breasts once you are done breastfeeding.

Your Breasts Will Gradually Stop Producing Milk

When you stop breastfeeding (whether feeding directly from the breast or pumping), it can take time for your breasts to get the message and stop producing milk—typically about six weeks. In the meantime, your breasts may become painfully engorged. 

The transition will be easier if you wean the baby slowly, but you can still expect some discomfort. In addition to tucking washed and chilled cabbage leaves in your bra and hand-expressing just enough milk to take the pressure off, herbal teas like sage, peppermint, parsley, or jasmine can help reduce your milk supply naturally and speed up the process.  

If natural remedies don't help, talk to your health care provider. Over-the-counter pain relievers like Tylenol (acetaminophen) or Advil (ibuprofen) may help, but if not, a prescription medication, called cabergoline can help dry up your supply.

If your breasts become hard, warm, red, and intensely painful with or without a fever, see your health care provider. You could have a breast infection like mastitis.

Your Breasts May Leak Milk

Something that may come as a surprise: Your breasts can still leak milk after weaning. "It takes roughly 40 days after your final nursing or pumping session for your body to re-regulate your hormones, so milk secretion during this time is common," says Katie Prezas, IBCLC, private practice lactation consultant and owner of Empowering Lactation. "It can even last for several months after completion of lactation."

Many people also find that they can hand-express breast milk past weaning. "Leaking of milk will usually go away pretty quickly after weaning, or even during the weaning process, but it is not unusual to be able to squeeze drops of milk out for months or even years after weaning," adds Rachelle Markham, IBCLC, a lactation consultant in private practice.

That said, if your breasts stopped leaking entirely and then suddenly restarted months or years later, you should check in with your health care provider to determine the cause.

Your Breast Size Will Change

While your breast size will change during pregnancy, and again if and when you nurse, things don't end there. After weaning, your breasts will change size again.

"Breasts generally return to a size similar to what they were pre-pregnancy, but during each pregnancy, you develop further glandular tissue inside the breast, so it's possible they remain slightly larger than they were pre-pregnancy," says Prezas.

Many lactating people notice that one of their breasts becomes a bit of an overproducer and becomes larger than the other. This is normal, but many wonder if their breasts will be less lopsided after weaning. 

For most people, Markham says, that lopsidedness will subside. "As the milk-making cells die off, breast tissue will change shape," she says. Once this process is done, your breasts typically end up looking similar to how they looked before breastfeeding, and issues like lactation-induced lopsidedness resolve, she adds.

Your Breasts May Sag More Than Pre-Pregnancy

You've probably heard your breasts will become saggier after breastfeeding, and while this is partially true, breastfeeding doesn't have as much to do with it as many believe. The sag many people see can be attributed to overall breast growth during pregnancy, regardless of whether or not you nurse.

Research shows breasts grow an average of 22% during pregnancy. This growth stretches out the skin, and as your breasts return to their pre-pregnancy size, some sagging is to be expected.

While sagging is common, it isn't inevitable. In one study, slightly more than half (55%) experienced sagging breasts after weaning, while somewhat less than half (45%) did not. Other factors found to contribute to breast sagging include:

  • Being older
  • Having a higher body mass index
  • Having had more pregnancies
  • Going into pregnancy with large breasts
  • Smoking

As Dominique Gallo, IBCLC, a lactation consultant in private practice, points out, lactation helps breasts stay fuller for a longer period of time after pregnancy, before any sagging starts to happen. Additionally, says Gallo, some people experience breast sagging even if they've never been pregnant or breastfed.

Weaning slowly, losing pregnancy weight gradually, working out your chest muscles, and wearing a supportive bra throughout nursing and weaning can help minimize sagging, but many contributing factors are out of your control.

Nipples, Veins, and Stretch Marks Will Lighten

During pregnancy, many people notice that as the breasts become fuller, the veins in the breasts become more visible. Stretch marks may develop as the breasts grow, and the nipples and areolas become darker, too, You may even start to develop little bumps along the areolas, called Montgomery glands.

"These changes happen in order to help your baby more easily find and latch onto your breast," says Prezas. But after you're done breastfeeding, your nipples, areolas, and Montgomery glands go back to their pre-breastfeeding state. Stretch marks will also lighten over time, though they won't ever disappear.

The Insides of Your Breasts Will Change, Too

During pregnancy and lactation, the inside of your breasts undergo many changes. You start to produce an abundance of milk-making tissue so that you can feed your little one. After breastfeeding ends, your body begins the process of involution, where the milk-secreting cells die off and are replaced by fat cells.

An interesting 2016 study found that a slightly different process may be underway that causes the milk-making cells to die off. According to the study, the milk-making cells are essentially absorbed by other cells in the body during involution.

"This is fascinating," Markham notes. "I would imagine that they're not [absorbing] a significant portion of the milk-making ducts, as we know that with each pregnancy, milk ducts increase. So it must be a small portion of cells that are eliminated after weaning."

Either way, our bodies are pretty amazing, huh? We go from normal humans to milk-making factories in a matter of months, and then, after weaning, we return to a new normal.

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Sources
Parents uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read our editorial process to learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.
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  3. Cabergoline. U.S. National Library of Medicine: MedlinePlus. 2017.

  4. Common breastfeeding challenges. Office on Women’s Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. 2021. 

  5. Assessment of breast volume changes during human pregnancy using a three-dimensional surface assessment technique in the prospective CGATE study. European Journal of Cancer Prevention. 2014.

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