Using Stretch Mark Cream on Breasts While Breastfeeding
Breasts are among the first areas to mark. Where cream can go, which area needs a different product, and how to time it around feeds.
Your breasts marked before your belly did, and nobody warned you that would happen.
They start growing in the first trimester, then again when your milk comes in, which gives the skin two sharp stretches rather than one gradual one.
Putting cream there is fine. Where it goes, and when, needs a little care.
Why they mark first
They grow early. Plenty of Mamas notice breast changes before they look pregnant at all.
They grow twice. Once through pregnancy, then again around day 3 to 5 after the birth when your milk arrives.
The skin is thinner than on your belly, so marks show more readily.
Where cream can go, and where it cannot
Not the nipple or areola. Stretch mark cream is not food grade and is not meant to be swallowed. That area goes in your baby's mouth.
Apply to the breast skin, out to the sides and underneath, and stop about 2 to 3 centimetres from the edge of the areola.
The nipple needs a different product. For dry or cracked nipples, use something formulated to be safe if your baby takes in a trace.
Mama's Choice Intensive Nipple Cream is food grade, so it does not need washing off before a feed.
Apply after a feed, not before. That leaves the longest gap before the next one, and means you are not putting anything on skin your baby is about to be against.
Wash your hands before and after. Straightforward, and the step most often skipped in the middle of the night.
How to apply it
Work upwards and outwards from underneath, in circles, and stop short of the areola.
Mama's Choice Stretch Mark Cream is water-based and non-sticky, which matters on skin that spends the day inside a bra.
Twice a day, and consistency does more than quantity.
Changes that are simply normal
Veins showing more clearly, from increased blood flow.
Areolas widening and darkening. Hormonal, and they usually stay somewhat darker afterwards.
Small bumps on the areola, the Montgomery glands. They produce a natural oil that protects the nipple, which is exactly why nipples should not be scrubbed with soap.
Fullness and tenderness in the early days after the birth.
Your bra is part of this
One that does not fit adds friction and pressure to skin that is already stretching.
- The band sits level and firm across your back, and does not ride up
- The cup holds everything, with nothing spilling out
- Straps do not leave marks
- The fabric breathes, because skin under the breast stays damp easily
Your size changes several times through pregnancy and feeding, so a bra that fitted in week one often does not by month two.
What is realistic
No cream prevents stretch marks. What one does is keep your skin comfortable while it stretches, and soften how existing marks look.
Marks here fade the same way as anywhere else. Red to silvery white over six to twelve months, mostly on their own.
Timing it around feeds
By the time your milk comes in, the practical question is no longer where the cream goes but when there is a gap long enough to put it on.
The morning feed is usually the longest gap. If you only manage it once a day, do it there.
After the last feed before bed is the other reliable slot, because the next one is hours away.
Skip it entirely on a bad day. A cream applied five times a week for six months does more than one applied twice a day for a fortnight before you give up on the whole thing.
Bras, pads and the friction problem
Most of the discomfort in the early weeks is not the stretching. It is everything sitting against the skin all day.
Change breast pads once they are damp. A wet pad against skin for hours is where irritation starts, and irritated skin marks more.
Give the underwire a rest while your size is still moving. A wire that fitted last month can sit on a duct this month.
Let the skin air when you can. Ten minutes without a bra after a shower does more for the skin under your breasts than any product.
Watch the seam. A rough seam inside a cup rubs the same patch every day, and that patch is usually the one that ends up marked.
When to see someone
- Nipples cracked to the point of bleeding, or pain right through a feed
- A tender lump that keeps returning to the same spot
- A breast red, hot and painful, with a fever
- Discharge from the nipple outside of breastfeeding
- Skin that looks dimpled, like orange peel
That last one needs checking promptly, at any age, pregnant or not.
Sources
- Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine — guidance on nipple care
- NHS — Breast changes in pregnancy
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This article is for information only and is not a substitute for diagnosis or medical advice. Please discuss your own situation with your midwife or doctor.
