Mother’s Day Weekend maternal health mystery thread

Happy almost Mother’s Day fellow breastfeeding parents. I’ve carried/birthed/nursed two children and each time I’ve been filled with rage when I realize how much the pregnancy/birth/breastfeeding cycle impacts our health and well-being and how much of it is under researched, gaslit, and accepted as part of maternal suffering. I’d love to start a thread of maternal health mysteries we’ve experienced and the answers we have found (or questions we still have).

Until the research catches up, the best support we can find is anecdotal data from each other.

I’ll go first! My 8.5 month is taking to solids in a huge way, which is great! But my milk supply is reducing and as a result my body is suddenly showing lots of symptoms of inflammation. I’m catching every bug I come across, joint pain, twitching eyelids, fatigue, brain fog, headaches. I’ve been here before, when I started weaning my first child I felt ill for over a year after. I’m desperate to support my body better during this process so I don’t live in bed like I did before. If anyone has advice from dealing with this and what helped them, I’m all ears!

From my research weaning causes an immune response in which your Tcells and macrophages rebuild your breasts to close down lactation. This process can take a long time and can be a real drain on the body. I’ve never heard anyone discuss this in a clinical setting and talk about how to support maternal health through this process.

My best guesses at what I can do from past times when my body has been in crisis: reduce sugar and eliminate alcohol, exercise regularly, sauna or hot yoga, meditation, massage, hydration.

* please note I am pro medicine, modern medicine saved my life during my first delivery and my baby’s. But medical misogyny is still prevalent and unfortunately causes us to look for answers outside of a clinical setting. Here’s to hoping things improve