lYudia* first thought about weight loss medications during pregnancy. “Everyone was talking about them and there were advertisements everywhere,” she says as her young son snoozes upstairs. “I remember thinking, 'This is how I'll lose weight for my wedding next year.'
When Lydia explains that most of her pre-pregnancy life was spent in the turmoil of dieting and dissatisfaction with her body, I tell her that I think most of us can relate. However, her pregnancy brought a level of body acceptance and satisfaction that the 33-year-old from Wales had never experienced before.
But as the due date approached, a familiar feeling of dread emerged. Her pregnancy WhatsApp group, which once shared photos of growing bumps and tips on how to go into labor, began to receive babies, and with them, conversations about feeding. Suddenly, diet and weight loss topics entered the chat. Of the group of six mothers, three chose not to breastfeed or gave up breastfeeding early by going on a strict diet or weight loss treatment – both of which are not recommended while breastfeeding due to their effect on both milk quality and quantity. However, Lydia was committed to breastfeeding, so she tried not to let it bother her – and was relieved when, despite her son being very unwell when he was born and admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit, they managed to do it.
Trauma has a way of focusing the mind, and in the early days of her son's life, Lydia's worries about her weight faded into the background as she devoted herself to caring for him. “He almost died. I just didn't care about anything but him,” she says. However, after a few months, she began to notice that her weight began to rise, rather than fall as everyone, including her mother, assured her it would during breastfeeding.
Today, seven months postpartum, she sees weight-loss shots everywhere she looks: On her Instagram feed, many of her followers are either reading them or talking about them, and many of the targeted ads are from a private provider. The world seems ready for her to stop being overweight. And like so many women before her, she listens. “As much as I value my body for bringing this beautiful soul into the world, and can completely rationalize it,” she says, “the thought of not being ‘thin’ at the wedding makes me want to die inside.”
I am also a mother of young children and, like many others, have struggled with weight my entire life. I grew up in the late 90s under the toxic lens of obsessive scrutiny of women's bodies. I still remember host Chris Evans asking Victoria Beckham to weigh herself on air six months after giving birth to her first son Brooklyn to prove she had lost weight. And while years of body positivity have made great strides in helping us all embrace difference and diversity, the rapid multi-billion pound growth of the GLP-1 agonist market, with an estimated 1.5 million people in the UK taking the drugs, appears to be pushing acceptance back.
I had my first child in 2022 and my second in 2024, and the need to “go back” after my second child was acute; the whole landscape seemed different. Weight loss was now not only desirable, but possible; just one simple, albeit rather expensive injection. A 2019 study The Mental Health Foundation estimates that four in 10 women experience post-natal body dissatisfaction – so it's no surprise that private weight loss companies are targeting women who have recently had a baby. Just look at Serena Williams' recent endorsement of jabs as part of advertising campaign for Ro, a private provider: “After children, this is the medicine my body needs,” she says.
I jumped on the bandwagon six months after giving birth. After researching medications and reading government and NHS leadership Around taking GLP-1 agonists, I learned that these drugs should not be taken while pregnant, trying to get pregnant, or while breastfeeding. After the numerous bouts of mastitis I had suffered over the previous few months, the desire to lose weight quickly was a deciding factor in my decision to stop breastfeeding at six months.
Dr. Ian Toledano, leading female hormone specialist and founder London Hormone Clinicsays he sees this too often in his clinic. “It's such a period of hormonal upheaval. Your body is changing, you're all over the place… you have the responsibility of looking after these newborns and babies. You have all kinds of personality and body issues, and the pressure to get back to who you were before is enormous.” She says it's alarming but not surprising that someone would be so committed to losing weight in this environment that they would be willing to give up breastfeeding.
Melanie* is a 31-year-old mother of two young children living in South Wales. Her youngest daughter is 18 months old and breastfeeds several times a day. Melanie, tired of her size after giving birth and keen to lose weight, has been on Mujaro (a popular GLP-1 agonist) since January and has lost five stone. For her, losing weight was “life-changing”, although going against NHS advice was not a decision she took lightly. “I did a lot of research, read scientific articles as much as I could understand, and told my husband about it,” she says. The private supplier from whom she bought Mujaro asked if she was breastfeeding. She checked the box to say no and the information she provided was never verified.
She says she felt more comfortable going against strict guidelines because she is taking another medication, which she says is administered in the same way and is considered safe for breastfeeding. She also read about other women's experiences on Reddit. “Obviously they couldn’t do large studies on the safety of drugs during breastfeeding because it’s not ethical,” she explains, “but we decided we’d go ahead.”
Breastfeeding Network Drugs in breast milk The service provides information about the safety of medications, treatments and procedures while breastfeeding. Amanda Da Costa, clinical director of the service, says inquiries from breastfeeding mothers about weight loss increased by 145% from summer 2024 to summer 2025. “Questions about injections are the leading cause of weight loss-related inquiries,” she says. “GLP-1 medications such as Mounjaro, Ozempic or Wegovy are not recommended for use during breastfeeding,” she adds. “More research and data is needed on whether these drugs pass into breast milk or have any effects on breastfeeding infants.”
Toledano is even more outspoken about his concerns about the use of these drugs while breastfeeding. “There is very little data in humans about whether they are absorbed into breast milk and passed on to the baby, but there are animal studies,” she says. “They're not very extensive, but there are some that show there may be an impact on the baby's growth, so it's extremely important and extremely important to avoid GLP-1 while breastfeeding.” She also notes that the impact on the child may not be noticeable at first, but there is a possibility of long-term consequences. “Other areas of concern for the child include the development of normal appetite regulation and gut hormonal pathways.”
The fact that new parents like Melanie can access these medications so easily over the Internet is concerning. Da Costa says the network expects all prescribers to ask patients whether they are breastfeeding before writing prescriptions, but is quick to say they know this doesn't always happen, or that a person may choose not to disclose this information or forget it. For Toledano, the lack of oversight is the most troubling aspect of the boom in GLP-1 use by private providers. “They often advertise that there is dietary support, but there isn’t,” she says, “and since it’s online and no one can see you, how can you assess how well the patient is doing?”
Toledano says there are other potential health risks associated with taking weight-loss drugs during the postpartum period, which she defines as at least the first year of a baby's life. “If there is rapid weight loss, it affects a lot of different things: yes, milk production may stop, but energy levels may also decrease, which I think will predispose to postpartum depression.” She also notes that rapid weight loss can cause periods to stop, which can mask the return to fertility that periods often indicate. For this reason, she advises anyone taking them to be very careful about contraception unless they intend to become pregnant.
Of course, there are times when mothers need medical care during the postpartum period, especially if they have developed gestational diabetes or are at risk of developing type 2 diabetes or other metabolic diseases. In these cases, Toledano advises working with a specialist doctor who can oversee their care while taking the medications, but she is concerned that mass marketing of drugs directly to consumers interferes with this process. “If a woman turns to GLP-1 agonists because they are advertised all the time and everyone is taking them, she will not see a doctor who understands the metabolic changes after pregnancy,” which she believes puts her at risk for developing unwanted side effects or other health complications.
I regret my decision to stop breastfeeding and take GLP-1 agonists, not least because the side effects were intolerable to me and I could not take them for more than a couple of weeks. Giving up milk is not a decision you can easily go back to. Hindsight is great of course, but looking back I can see how insecure and unsure of myself I was in those early postpartum days and so was willing to believe the promise of easy weight loss. I might as well have had a target painted on my back. And what I do feel now is concern about the lack of ongoing care and support for postpartum women who, rightly or wrongly, are being pushed into using these drugs during an extremely susceptible period. I wish someone would protect me from them.
After our interview, Melanie told me that she had stopped taking Mujaro. She says she worries how easy it is for postpartum women like her to get caught up in the marketing of the jabs or miss out on information or lie to get them – as she did. “You're quite vulnerable, you've got hormones all over the place, lack of sleep and all that. There should be warnings and stricter advertising so it doesn't target the wrong people,” she says.
For now, Lydia has decided not to take medication. “Eventually my baby will face this incessant need to be thin,” she says, although she is clear that if she is advised that it is safe and she is confident that her son will not be harmed, she will likely take them as soon as he turns one. She also resents the fact that, as women often do, she has to choose between two things society puts enormous pressure on mothers to do: bounce back and breastfeed. “I just hate that I can’t do both,” she says. I tell her I feel the same way.
*Names have been changed
