Jogging + D Cups + Breastfeeding -Advice Please

Hi L.,

I am not in the Big Breast Club, but I know that the Title 9 clothing company sells a variety of fancy sports bras for those "bouncy-boobed" ladies like you. I think Athleta does too. Both of those companies you can access online. They have catalogs. The bras aren't cheap, but they look foolproof.

Good luck!
:-) D.

I second the person that suggested the Enell sports bras...they are fantastic! They are worth every penny.
http://enell.com/index.html

There's a wonderful bra store called Creative Woman in Monrovia. The website is www.creativewoman.com They will correctly measure you & bring you bras in your size - so easy! I have a difficult size, small band & large cup. I was up to 36F when nursing. I've gotten the best bras there over the years (wedding, nursing, bra size swimwear).

I don't know about the milk production but it seems if this is an activity that you're body was used to doing that you should be able to adjust. I would just see how it goes & slow down to a brisk walk if it starts to affect your production. Also, drink lots & lots of water!

Oh & I'm sorry to say I've had a bad experience at Nordstroms. They did not measure correctly or have much of a selection for uncommon sizes. Some bra "experts" add to the band size. This is incorrect. If the band is too big, all the support will have to come from your shoulders causing back problems. The band needs to be the main support.

I was a 34DDD so I understand your issue. I fully agree with getting sized. I thought I was a 34D but I"m actually a 32 D. It makes the biggest difference in band support. I was watching Oprah who did a special about this that 75% (Or so ) of women wear the wrong bra size. I started running at 6 weeks and breastfed until my son was 9 months.

Oh one things I did to conserve $ is I shopped at Nordstrom and Macy's (great suggestions by others) but I would buy it on ebay. If you get the model #, you can search for new bras on ebay and pay a small fraction of the price. I bought 3 $60 bras and paided $45 for all 3 together! Make sure it's new but not all of them have tags.

Good luck and good for you for getting in shape!!!

Try to nurse before a run or wait a few hours after a run. During a run your body uses up the energy and produces acid as a by-product (refer to the Kreb's cycle). The body's response to this is sweating. Long story short, the acid-by products cause your milk to taste sour immediately after exercising...kind of like fermented milk. This may affect the eating habits of your baby on running days. This was my experience when I was nursing on exercise days. If you are worried about keeping your supply good/enough, you may want to take an herbal supplement such as Blessed Thistle.

As for the bras, Title 9 is a great place for running bras. You might also want to try Lucy. Some Victorias Secret locations have started carrying sports bras, but I haven't given those a shot.

I breastfed for 3 1/2 years and my kids are quite healthy. I ate a lot of green leafy vegetables (mustard green , bochoy spinach ) , drunk lots of milk , fresh juice and ate fresh fruits.
Take it easy with exercise and take care of your baby 's needs . We as parents are secondary in our life right now when we choose parenting in our lives.

I have always had big boobs, they are just bigger now after kids... and while nursing. I am currently a 38 or 36E, according to my motherhood nursing bras. Anyhow, I workout hard 2 hrs. a day, at the min. 3 days per week. I wear my boobs as tight as I can against me, using 2 bras. This seems to keep the uncomfortable double bounce to a minimum. I wear the "uniboob" type sports bras, that pull over your head, no cup. Ones where the straps are over your shoulders, not a racerback. I think racerbacks give less support. And I use a smaller size than I should, so they are really tight. I buy them cheap! Mervyns, cherokee i think are most of them. Sometimes I even wear my nursing bra underneath too, for a little extra support. My baby is 17 mos. old, but I still have quite a bit of milk, and he is a pretty big nurser (minimum 5 times a day)--hence why we are still nursing at 17 mos! Anyhow I have not found my exercising or my bra wearing to have affected my milk. But I know, the whole "binding" thing can be scary. Just wanted to let you know I have not had a problem.

I am also very well-endowed, 38I if you can believe it. I don't do anything high-impact these days, but in my younger days I would reign them in by using my normal bra and a very tight sports bra over that. It worked pretty well. How this will affect milk production, I do not know, but I do know that my midwife advised me to wear very tight-fitting bras when I was trying to get my milk to dry up, so beware.

You may want to check out www.breakoutbras.com - they have detailed instructions on how to measure yourself so you can be sure you have the correct bra size (contrary to other methods of sizing). Many women are wearing bras that are too wide around and that will diminish the bra's ability to support you. They are also the only place I have found that carry bras in my size since having my kids (I used to be "only" DDD).

I hope this helps and that you enjoy getting back in to running!

I started running after my first was about 6 months old and haven't stopped since, they are 3.5 and 6 (two kids, breastfed past 2 years of age). No, it doesn't affect your production. However, you do need to wear good bras so you don't get infections, etc.. Title 9 and Athleta (go to their websites) have great bras. I think Title 9 rates them with dumbells - the more you see the more support, or something like that.

The only thing your baby might do, is not nurse right after a run (although mine always did) but I heard the taste is a little different or some don't like the sweat. So if that happens, just take a shower first then try to nurse.

Best wishes,
M.

Heavy exercise and losing weight too fast will decrease your milk supply. You might switch to yoga and walking for a while.

This is a good link to increasing milk supply if you have dipped a bit.

http://www.drjaygordon.com/development/bf/galact.asp

Best of luck!

I highly recommend the Enell bra: http://enell.com/index.html

I'm a 38DD and grew to a 40DD during pregnancy and nursing and this is the only bra I feel comfortable in for high impact exercising. (FYI, by looking at the Title Nine website, it appears that their "Last Resort" bra is a knock-off of the Enell).

for a bra, go to nordstrom's. get measured and then invest. you may be surprised about what they have to say about your size. don't hesitate to ask any questions at all! especially if you think they're crazy for saying you're a size...whatever it measures out to be.

about the milk supply. you mentioned feeling like you had a lot of milk and not so much now but still enough for your baby. that's all you need--enough. when exclusively breastfeeding our bodies are pretty good about meeting our baby's needs.

yes, secure fitting bras can decrease milk production, but not always. wear the secure bra for your work outs and then switch out when you're done. as far as the running itself decreasing your milk supply, it depends on how much you do.

as long as you continue to feed your baby and are able to provide all that she needs, you know your milk supply is good. if you're burning so many calories, your body may get confused and slow down on milk production.

keep in mind, our bodies are designed for survival. so you may or may not keep on a few pounds as long as you are nursing. this is your body anticipating any possibility that you might be left on a stranded island, or in an earthquake , or flood and can't get to enough food. so what your body does is keep on a few extra pounds so just in case, you can keep you and your baby alive for a while.

in my case, keeping the weight off was the easiest for me when i was nursing and am hoping to use that to my advantage in the coming months.

Hello I know of a great new bra that is a home based business its called essentials bra. The lady lives in San Diego but I swear by them they are not the most beautiful sports bra but those babies will not be moving for sure. It has litterly about 10 of those hooks that are on the back of our bras but its on the front in the middle and really works.I love the bras they really fit well and make them not sag etc. I don't have the card in front of me but if you email I promise to get it sent to you tomarrow for sure. Again the lady is in San Diego

S.
____@____.com

personally, since i have become more voluptuous after having children, I have been doing more exercises that are weight (and gravity) forgiving! like swimming and biking (on an exercise bike) and yoga or palates (i like to switch back and forth) at least until i lose the extra jiggly parts! which unfortunately i am still working at.

I went from a 32B to a 36DD after having kids and i wear sports bras most of the time. i have not noticed my milk go down. i have only noticed it go down when my babies don't nurse as much, but it also depends on your own body!
if wearing a sports bra is not comfortable or if running doesn't feel right then don't do it. when it comes to your body you really need to listen to what it is telling you!

I highly recommend the Shock Absorber Level 4 D+ sports bra. I have been wearing that style for a few years now and I love it. It's on www.figleaves.com.

Hello! I love to jog and for comfort purposes i usually feed my daughter before i jog. I wear a good bra and a sports bra over it. I do not know of tight bras reducing milk supply. I know when you are weaning you get engorged, and the tight bra helps everything stay in place and be less painful. I have not had any milk reduction from excercising, however...you must drink lots of water!! Have fun, it feels so good to jog(:

I'm a 38DDD....

- For everyday bras: I enthusiastically second the advice to go to Nordstroms to get fitted. They're EXCELLENTLY trained there AND they don't keep the higher letter bras on the shelves. They're in back. But they're pretty!!! Hurray!!! Ahem. They also cost an arm and a leg. I think the least expensive one I've gotten was 60 and many are over 100. But boy, oh boy, sooooo worth it. <laughing> I honestly didn't know that that little triangular piece between the cups was supposed to lie flat against your sternum. It always looked like it should, but never did, until finding out what my ACTUAL size was. Go figure.

- For running : Title9. My personal favorites are the underwire sports bras. The uni-boob wasn't a hassle when I was an A, B, C, but once I got into the D's...well, you would know, too.

http://www.titlenine.com/

Cuz' She Says So, Triple Threat, Ban the Bounce, & the Last Resort are my personal favs. The Last Resort isn't an underwire, but the rest are. Of course, if you hate underwire they've got tons of other options. Those are just the ones that I know best.

Good Luck

Milk production is based on supply & demand when they feed or you pump and how often and what you eat & drink, stress, & sleep.

Like you, my breasts became very large and bouncy. I started running about 6-8 weeks after the baby was born and experienced no decrease in milk production. But you have to drink extra water. I did read somewhere that you should also wait until 1 hour after vigorous exercise before nursing because of the lactic acid. I didn't always wait that long and it never seemed to bother my son. Regarding sports bras - I kept using the same sports bras I'd always used (just a larger size - 38DD). I use cheapies from Target, like Cherokee (I think?), but I now have to double up to minimize the bouncing. Good luck.

I resumed running when my son was 6 weeks old (running and walking) and also breastfed. I always seemed to have enough milk for him. I got up to a 34 D to DD when I was pregnant and nursing. The bra that worked best for me was from Title Nine Sports. It was called the Frog Bra. This was almost 10 years ago, but I'm sure they have an equivalent. It was comfortable, yet kept me from bouncing around too much. It was one of the best running bras that I've ever worn. The Frog Bra was made specifically for larger breasted women. I don't know their URL, but it's easy enough to Google. Good luck finding the right bra and happy running.

I have always had large breasts and after my two kids, I am bigger then I would want to be. I run regulary and I have to wear two (three would be better)bras. Most of the time I wear a regular bra and then a sports bra over that. It workes well for me. I am a DD too. If you at all feel like your milk supply is going down, take fenugreek and it will up your milk supply. It's very safe and effective. I get it at Henry's, but it is in the herbal section anywhere.

L.