Changes in the breast

Once the baby is born your body and organs will take another 6 to 18 weeks to return to normal and enable you once again to take up your old responsibilities plus new ones. This period following the delivery is known as puerperium. The changes in the breast are remarkable. Initially they get congested followed on the third day by marked fullness and tenderness. Its initial secretion, as we have learnt elsewhere, is colostrums which is a thick, sticky yellow fluid which is considered the ideal food for the baby at this stage. True milk comes a few days later. Initiation of milk production and the maintenance of lactation remember it depends a great deal on mechanical stimulation by sucking the nipple as also on your will to breast feed the baby and make a success of it. Mind you, the mother’s body does not absolutely have foolproof involution of all the changes that it underwent during pregnancy and labour. The anatomical structure of the wall of the womb, for instance, is likely to remain permanently altered in some way or the other. Also, the vulva remains somewhat enlarged. The striae on the skin also are likely to remain as permanent scars.