5 Surprising Changes Breasts Undergo During Pregnancy

During pregnancy, the body goes through a lot of changes, especially various physical changes in your appearance. A significant physical transition is how your breasts naturally evolve to adapt before the baby is born. The undermentioned developments that your breasts may go through are to prepare them for breastfeeding, so let’s take a look at a few seemingly unusual ones.

1. Lumps

Sometimes breast lumps develop during pregnancy, which are benign or non-cancerous in nature like Cysts, which are fluid-filled sacs and Galactoceles (milk-filled cysts). The chance of getting breast cancer in women of child-bearing age and during pregnancy is very uncommon. You can breathe a sigh of relief because there are cases where cysts just eventually disappear. 

2. Blood from nipples

Women occasionally face leakage of blood from the nipples due to an increased number and size of blood vessels. This can be considered normal during pregnancy, but one must consult their doctor to avoid further complications.

3. Darkening of nipples

Due to the hormones and their fluctuating levels, the production of the pigment of the skin -melanin begins to increase. This production of melanin is usually stronger in and around the nipples. The evolutionary reason for darkening of nipples is to make it easier for newborns to find them for breastfeeding. In most cases, nipples go back to looking like they used to -before pregnancy, but sometimes they don’t, simply because of hormonal differences.

 4. Leakage 

Leaky breasts are a normal part of pregnancy because breasts start producing milk weeks or months before the due date. This milk is called colostrum and the hormone responsible for it is prolactin. Sometimes this discharge is watery, and can also be thick, sticky and yellowish late into pregnancy till your breasts are fully prepared for breastfeeding. 

 5. Breasts become veiny 

During pregnancy, a web of blue veins might appear on the surface of breasts. This happens because blood volume increases 20 to 40 percent to help transport blood, nutrients, and oxygen to the developing fetus. The increased blood volume makes the veins more visible and usually lessen after birth. 

Darker nipples and veiny breasts are the two conditions out of the aforementioned five that are common even if you are not pregnant which are not alarming. Darkening of nipples and veiny breasts are usually observed during menstruation due to hormone fluctuations and further, clear veins are typically visible on heavier breasts, sudden weight gain or weight loss also. The other three conditions -lumps on breasts, blood from nipples, and leakage from breasts ,while not being pregnant, may or may not be a cause for concern but must be checked out by a professional to confirm. 

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