Weaning

Body: 

Hi, I am 16 wks PP. I discovered my cystocele @ wk 3. The urogyn I saw at week 4 gave me a grade 3. It has been a really tough couple of months.
I so love my baby, and love nursing, but have seriously been considering weaning to see if my cystocele improves.
I am very torn. I nursed my first son until he was 14 months, so this is a conflict for me in many ways.
I have started to realize that it's more important for my boys to have a happy mom than for the little one to get the breast milk and have a sad and frustrated mom.. but then what if i wean and this barely changes?

To those of you who have weaned, have you noted a significant change?

Thanks

because if you do there is no difference in estrogen. I had some realizations about this topic a while back- check my old posts in the search engine to the left. Don't give it up is my advice- I am still nursing my baby almost a year now and I am having huge improvements.

as far as I know, the reason people say to wean is to increase estrogen. they say increased estrogen will plump up the vaginal tissue. which is probably true. but I haven't come across any evidence that plumped up vaginal tissue puts the pelvic organs back in their original places.

personally, I wouldn't wean on that hope. because even if weaning would improve my prolapse situation, I'm not good at weaning until I'm good and ready to wean.
the breastfeeding relationship is a once-in-a-lifetime thing and I find I can stabilize the prolapse with the postural work here. If it all gets better once I'm done bf, great, but I'm not holding my breath.

I do think you're right, your little ones are better off with a happy mom than a sad and frustrated mom. I know when I found my prolapse I was one sad and frustrated mom. and angry. and depressed.
the women here rallied around me, supported me through the dark days, lent an ear and a shoulder while I mourned the loss of my perfect vagina. I read all I could and slowly came through to the other side. still have a prolapse, but I'm not sad and frustrated over it anymore. now its just another less-than-perfect part of me that only acts up when I'm not taking care of myself.

I think weaning is often a hard decision, even harder so if you are thinking of weaning for the "what if...".
i fed my first till he self weaned just before 3. i'd love to do that again. but i also have that little voice in the back of my head that asks if i should keep feeding that long.

i have a great physio, and we talk about it.
first, she says that when i get my periods back i will likely get some improvement again (baby is 8 1/2 months, and really i can't complain with how i'm doing, but every little bit would help!).

she believes that then, as long as i carry on feeding, i'm just a bit more vulnerable to things getting worse--but the feeding is not in itself making things worse. I just have to look after myself a bit better.
so what she suggested is i keep on feeding, but if it gets worse, i try dropping some feeds (I have baby who feeds ALLLL night long) and see how that goes, and take it from there.

i'd say that at 16 weeks you are still really early. i'm still improving, even when i keep thinking i've plateaued. and we feed a lot. so if you want to keep feeding, keep feeding. how will you feel if you wean, and there is no improvement? i think that's an important question to ask...
good luck!
k

There are alot more things that can positively impact your condition, imo. Plus, emotional things effect it, and what if things didn't change? My situation is that my almost 2.5 year old is almost self-weaned, nursing 1-3 times in a 24 hour period. It hasn't signficiantly impacted my symptoms from when he was nursing 12 times a day.

blessings,,

Marie

I am still nursing a 17 month old who needs lots of mommy's milk due to severe allergies. I have my cycle and other signs of having estrogen. I showed improvement even before my cycle returned. I wouldn't wean, you would probably regret it.