Pregnancy, as you know, involves a lot of changes. Beyond the lifestyle adjustments necessary to accommodate a new baby, there's also the fact that pregnant and postpartum bodies change in ways that some folks might not expect — particularly in the breast area.
Mom Chi-Chi LaFlare found out just how much motherhood could alter her body when she began pumping her breast milk. LaFlare, who runs a non-profit that promotes breast-feeding, took to Instagram last week to post photos that highlight just how much breast-feeding or pumping can affect a new mom's breast size.
LaFlare posted two side-by-side photos of herself before and after pumping over one liter of breast milk, and the difference is remarkable.
"When you sleep in and wake up not knowing who that girl is with the huge knockers," she jokingly captioned the photo. She also commented that the photo on the right was taken after her first pump of the day.
It's common for breasts to get bigger during and after pregnancy and for them to become engorged as they begin to produce milk. And, of course, as someone actually breast-feeds or pumps, their breasts can also then decrease in size.
As beautiful and rewarding as parenting is, it's also a process that comes with many ups and downs, as LaFlare's Instagram shows. Kudos to her for sharing such an intimate, realistic image of what pumping is really like.