Stress is the No. 1 killer of breastmilk supply, especially in the first few weeks after delivery. Between lack of sleep and adjusting to the baby's schedule, rising levels of certain hormones such as cortisol can dramatically reduce your milk supply.
While these hormones can temporarily help your body deal with a stressful situation, over time, they can have a negative effect on your body both physically and emotionally. Stress doesn't directly affect milk supply. The amount of milk your body makes depends on how often your baby nurses.
While a baby, toddler, or child is latched on, some mothers suffer from negative feelings or intrusive thoughts. This is a phenomenon called breastfeeding aversion and agitation. It is a rarely discussed topic as many women do not want to talk openly about it or are perhaps afraid to share these feelings.
For most bereaved mothers, when their milk comes in, they begin the very difficult process of helping their body to stop producing milk. You may be surprised by the sudden engorgement you will feel when your milk comes in, and how quickly you may become physically uncomfortable.
Your baby can also jumpstart your milk let-down reflex; when your body recognizes cues, such as hearing your baby cry, it lets the milk flow. In fact, some working moms record their babies' I'm-getting-hungry cries to help them pump more efficiently at the office.
Breastfeeding: The Let-Down Reflex
Let-down happens as milk is released into milk ducts in your breast. This usually happens when your baby sucks on your breast. You may even have a let-down when your baby or someone else's baby cries, or for no reason at all. Some women don't feel the let-down.
Myth: Babies who have been breastfed are clingy.
All babies are different. Some are clingy and some are not, no matter how they are fed. Breastfeeding provides not only the best nutrition for infants, but is also important for their developing brain.
Hypothyroxinemia may contribute to both perinatal mood disorders and low milk supply. Gestation in the setting of maternal depression or anxiety may affect infant temperament and delay oromotor development, which can impede the infant's ability to latch and lead to breastfeeding difficulties.
You can keep expressing your milk after your baby dies. Some bereaved mothers find that expressing milk on a regular basis helps them move through the grieving process. They use pumping as a ritual to help them manage their grief and to honor their connection to their baby.
Breastfeeding, also known as nursing, is a natural and beautiful process that helps create intimacy and bonding between mom and baby. The connection and bonding felt during this nurturing embrace can provide beneficial psychological effects, like lowering stress and increasing feelings of calm.
This bond increases the mother's and child's abilities to control their emotions, reduce the stress response and encourages healthy social development in the child. Physical contact during breastfeeding increases levels of oxytocin in the mother and child, which improves the mother-child bond.
Stress and Breastfeeding
On the bright side, breastfeeding may help to lower your stress levels. The hormones that your body releases when you breastfeed can promote relaxation and feelings of love and bonding. Research shows that breastfeeding can significantly reduce physiological and subjective stress.
Anxious mothers may pass the stress hormone cortisol on to their babies through breast milk — but how does it affect infant development?
But children who were breastfed were better equipped to deal with the problem than those who were fed by bottle and were "significantly less anxious". Breastfed children were almost twice as likely to be highly anxious if their parents had divorced or separated compared to those who stayed together.
Masked grief occurs when someone tries to suppress their feelings of grief and not deal with them or allow them to run their natural course. In the very early moments after a loss, our bodies and minds are clever in that the initial feelings of shock and denial are useful to us.
Abstract. Dysfunctional grieving represents a failure to follow the predictable course of normal grieving to resolution (Lindemann, 1944). When the process deviates from the norm, the individual becomes overwhelmed and resorts to maladaptive coping.
This occurs when an individual is unable to progress satisfactorily through the stages of grieving to achieve resolution and usually gets stuck with the denial or anger stages. Prolonged response- preoccupation with memories of the lost entity for many years.
To put a number on it, it usually takes about 20 to 30 minutes after feeding to generate enough milk for your baby, and about 60 minutes to replenish fully. The more often your baby feeds, and the more they empty your breasts, the more milk your body will produce.
The pressure surrounding breastfeeding doesn't end at the pressure to breastfeed alone. You may feel stress and pressure over milk supply difficulties. Many parents stress about increasing their milk production. This may be especially true for parents of babies who are gaining weight slowly.
Physical pain with breastfeeding can be especially triggering for a mother with risk factors for mental illness. Research has found that pain is associated generally with increased risk of depression, and breastfeeding pain has been associated with increased risk of postnatal depression.
Kissing your baby will change your breast milk
When you kiss your baby, you are sampling the pathogens on her skin, which are then transferred to your lymphatic system where you will produce antibodies to any bugs. These antibodies will then pass through your breast milk to your baby and boost her immune system.
Breastmilk or infant formula should be your baby's main source of nutrition for around the first year of life. Health professionals recommend exclusive breastfeeding for 6 months, with a gradual introduction of appropriate foods in the second 6 months and ongoing breastfeeding for 2 years or beyond.
Yes, you can! It just takes a little extra planning. It is a good idea to have a talk with your boss, or your school advisor about your plans to breastfeed your baby. Arrange to take as much time off from work or school as possible after delivery.