What is letdown?

[ready4number1]

I ladies. I have never had a baby and I am currently in the 2ww

It's kind of funny how I ended up here. Tonight, my underarms randomly began to sting/feel tingly. I looked it up and it kept directing me to breastfeeding and the "letdown" feeling. Would this stinging under the arm happen in early pregnancy? Was it a pregnancy symptom for anyone?

Thank you in advance

 

[beagleowner]

Hmm, I don't think so personally. Letdown happens when your milk is released from your breasts. It's not like the achiness that happens when you are pregnant. If you look at it while pumping, it's like little drops then all of a sudden big streams of milk.

I've also never felt it under my arms....maybe the sides of my breasts. For me it just feels like the whole breast is being squeezed. Hard to explain.

 

[ready4number1]

Thank you for your response! Anyone else?

 

[fieryphoenix]

It doesn't happen in early pregnancy, its when you are lactating and baby nurses, the milk gets activated lol and gushes out. For me, it was pretty painful at first, now its just kinda a tingling feeling and I don't always feel it

 

[misspriss]

Let down happens when you are breastfeeding, but goes away usually if you breastfeed long term. My let down feeling CAME BACK (as I was still and am still breastfeeding DS) when I got pregnant again. All of a sudden I felt the let down when DS nursed again, but that went away around 12-15 weeks (my milk went away shortly after).

I never felt let down in my armpits though, and I have lots of boob tissue that goes there. I DID get soreness in my arm pits when I got pregnant with DS, very early sign. Sounds like you have soreness that manifests itself as a tingly feeling.

 

[ready4number1]

Let down happens when you are breastfeeding, but goes away usually if you breastfeed long term. My let down feeling CAME BACK (as I was still and am still breastfeeding DS) when I got pregnant again. All of a sudden I felt the let down when DS nursed again, but that went away around 12-15 weeks (my milk went away shortly after).

I never felt let down in my armpits though, and I have lots of boob tissue that goes there. I DID get soreness in my arm pits when I got pregnant with DS, very early sign. Sounds like you have soreness that manifests itself as a tingly feeling.

Thank you. That is an interesting case because they were tingly last night and a bit sore today. Testing in a couple days. I appreciate the response!

 

[Larkspur]

What letdown actually is is all the little muscles around the milk ducts throughout your breasts contracting to help squeeze milk out. For me it's a slightly achy tingle (rather than a stinging) that radiates around the whole breast from the nipple backwards, but definitely not as far as the armpits.

Since you don't have milk in early pregnancy, I would say that stinging or tingling in armpits is unrelated to milk letdown. That's not to say that it's not a pregnancy symptom, just that it's nothing to do with letdown.

 

[stephj25]

When my LO latches on, he gives a few sucks and then I get a mild achy/tingly feeling in both boobs and my milk leaks out of both. I have to press firmly on the one I'm not nursing from to stop it. It lasts around 15secs before it stops leaking