by Tara Shafer posted in Parenting

Of late, I have been grappling with the question of what to do about my boobs. The relationship I have to my breasts has changed over the years, to be sure. As a teenager, I was a late bloomer and flat-chested far longer than my peers. As a young woman, I explored my sexual identity and my finally arrived breasts had something to do with that.
Then I had children and I nursed for a solid ten years. Extended nursing, nursed while pregnant and all the rest. My boobs ceased to be sexy and became more like hands; they became more functional than anything else. They served a beautiful and a specific purpose. While I did make some effort to cover up, I did not worry particularly if I could not. My humility did not vanish as much as it merely shifted. I was not embarrassed by nursing or by my breasts, and I was humbled by their ability to provide.
I was grateful to my breasts for providing sustenance, comfort, and connection for my children.
Now, though, my boobs are just kind of in the way. A solid decade of nursing, together with the madly fluctuating weight gain and loss, has left my boobs wholly different. No longer pert and cute, they are now saggy and out of proportion to my body. Now they quite seriously wreck my back. I have a good amount of low, mid, and upper back shoulder/neck pain.
And you can't lose meaningful weight in your boobs. Or, you can lose weight overall but the only thing that happens in that event is that boobs get even...