When Will Your Boobs Go Back To Their Original Size After Birth?

I don't exactly know what having a huge chest is like, but after I gave birth to my child, it felt like I had the biggest knockers to ever knock. It was alarming, as it may be to you. You may wonder, "how long before your boobs return to their original size after birth?" I mean, bras are expensive and you really don't want to buy more lingerie.

Turns out, it really depends. First, are you breastfeeding? Breastfeeding moms can increase their size by a few cups (or more, in my case) and stay there for the duration of their nursing period, according to Elle magazine. I know that for me, my breasts started shrinking around three or four months postpartum, regardless of breastfeeding, but would still become large and engorged until my kids started eating solid foods regularly around six months. According to Today's Parent, this is common if you miss a feeding or two, which is less likely to happen or affect your breasts as much after your children are in a routine of eating solids.

Like with most things after giving birth, there is no hard and fast rule about breast size postpartum. Rocky Gupta, IBCLC of Manhattan, tells Romper in an interview that it can vary from woman to woman. "Some women never go back to their original size, and some women actually end up with smaller breasts postpartum," she says.

Gupta tells Romper that it depends on many factors, but that it's primarily genetics. Some women will have breasts that are like rubber bands that will just snap back into position after pregnancy and breastfeeding, and some women's breasts will be dramatically altered forever. She says, "like most things, you can blame your parents for how your boobs behave after you've had a baby." Although, she remarks, that's not all of it — it also depends on how much weight you gain and lose with the pregnancy and in your postpartum period. "Some women who gain a lot of weight and don't succeed in losing all of it may be contending with larger breasts for the rest of their lives. On the flip side of that, if you lose a lot of weight after you give birth, you're likely to end up smaller up top than before, because breasts are mostly fat, and that goes first," Gupta explains.

According to Gupta, a few months after your child is weaned or your milk dries up, you should be where you'll land, size-wise. But she notes, "breasts change a lot throughout a woman's life, and what may be the case and cup one year, might very well change in the next." So it might be time to get a professional bra fitting and engage in a little retail therapy to decorate and hold up your changed breasts in the fashion they deserve.