Any new Mum will know the dizzying feeling of holding on tight as they ride the hormone rollercoaster after giving birth.  

Each hormone plays an important role as her body recovers from labour and transitions to caring for her baby. Relaxin helps loosen joints in preparation for labour. Prolactin surges to boost milk production, and oxytoxin, the “love hormone”, helps us bond with our baby. Oestrogen, one of the powerhouse hormones for women, also plays a pivotal role during this time.  

During pregnancy the placenta produces oestrogen to help nourish the developing baby. After we give birth oestrogen levels drop, and they remain low while we are breastfeeding. This essentially mimics the symptoms of menopause. While fully breastfeeding, many women do not ovulate (release a fertile egg) for many consecutive months. A welcome side effect of this low oestrogen is ovarian shut down. This acts as nature’s contraception, allowing women to space their next birth while they care for a young infant.

But during this time, many breastfeeding mothers also suffer troublesome symptoms of low oestrogen levels. These can include night sweats and flushes, lower libido and bladder irritation. Vaginal dryness can also occur as low oestrogen can cause a thinning and inflammation of the vaginal walls.

Eternelle offers breastfeeding women a number of benefits.

Given many mothers also experience painful sex when first intimate with their partner after giving birth, Eternelle’s ability to reduce vaginal dryness, can help restore a woman’s confidence and enjoyment of sex postpartum. This can help re-establish confidence of recommencing intimacy with a partner or to achieve pleasure again via self stimulation.