It's normal to feel sad that you have stopped breastfeeding for a while. After all, this was a shared moment in time where you will have bonded with your baby. It can feel both heartbreaking and exciting that your baby is growing up and you are experiencing new phases in their life.
It's healthy to talk about how you feel and work through your emotions. You can look to your partner, family, friends, and other women who have weaned their children for support. A local breastfeeding group can also provide tips and advice to help you work through the feelings associated with weaning.
After your baby has stopped breastfeeding, you might have lumpy breasts for 5-10 days. A sore lump might indicate a blocked duct or the beginnings of mastitis. If this happens, try massaging the lumps or expressing a small amount of milk.
Once the time has come to start final weaning, it should be a gradual process. Abrupt weaning is traumatic for the infant, uncomfortable for the mother, and may result in blocked ducts, mastitis or breast abscesses. Abrupt weaning is to be avoided if possible.
It's not unusual to feel tearful, sad or mildly depressed after weaning; some mothers also experience irritability, anxiety, or mood swings. These feelings are usually short-term and should go away in a few weeks, but some mothers experience more severe symptoms that require treatment.
Breastfeeding may not always be natural and can be a super emotional journey. Starting from the latching on to the milk coming in and continuing the journey can get emotionally exhausting but also very rewarding.
Breastfeeding can lead to several mental health issues, including: anxiety. depression. increased stress.
Thanks to biological and behavioral changes, it's totally normal to gain weight when you stop breastfeeding. "It's really common that women will stop breastfeeding and their weight goes up," G. Thomas Ruiz, M.D., an ob/gyn at MemorialCare Orange Coast Medical Center in Fountain Valley, California, tells SELF.
You will burn some stored body fat, but your body protects some fat for the purpose of breastfeeding. Many women don't lose all the baby weight until they completely stop nursing.
Breastfeeding, even just once a day, is worth it.
Your body is regulating your hormones and your endocrine system with stimulation. Second, the baby receives that contact, that transfer of energy from the parent, and being skin to skin continues to support heart rate, respiration, glucose levels and temperature.
Stopping breastfeeding suddenly could put you at risk of engorgement, blocked ducts or mastitis, as well as being an abrupt change for your baby's digestive and immune systems to cope with. It may also be difficult for you both emotionally.
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. Babies show they are ready to start solids when they: start showing interest when others are eating.
Ideally, the preferred way to wean baby without pain is to do it slowly. “Gradual weaning, by phasing out one feeding or pump session every few days, is usually a good way to start,” says Radcliffe. Besides cutting back on a feeding every three days or so, you can also shave a few minutes off of each feeding.
Post-weaning depression should only last a month or so, as your hormones adjust and you acclimate to your new normal as a non-breastfeeding mother.
During breastfeeding, your baby's tongue pushes up on your nipple, which signals the release of oxytocin. This oxytocin causes your breast tissue to contract and let milk down into the ducts and out the nipple. It's during this letdown that some women experience a severe dip in their mood.
The best way to lose weight once you stop nursing
Just adjust your diet and exercise habits to ensure you burn calories. Set a cut-off period and make some serious changes to your diet and routine. These are a few pointers — replace carbs like rice and maida with complex carbs and multigrain items.
How long after weaning will it take for hormones to balance and your cycle to recalibrate? “Any changes to our body's systems typically takes up to three months. This is the time for our hypothalamic-pituitary-ovarian (HPO) axis, which is the communication from brain to ovaries, to recalibrate.
Weight Gain
Your body uses a lot of calories to produce breast milk, so you may have been able to eat more during breastfeeding without facing any consequences. Once you stop expending those calories, you may notice the weight adding up more easily.
The hormone effect
Kicking into gear during pregnancy, prolactin levels surge post childbirth and at every breastfeed thereafter. Simultaneously, the hormone stimulates appetite, and reduces lipid (fat) metabolism – an adaptive function that serves to preserve fat reserves in adverse conditions.
Breastfed babies cry more, laugh less, and generally have "more challenging temperaments" than formula-fed infants, a study has found. But such behaviour is normal, and mothers should learn to cope with it rather than reach for the bottle, according to researchers.
We have Prolactin and Oxytocin to thank for that surge of joy. These hormones are happy hormones that act as a natural stress and pain reliever (thanks, Mother Nature!), so you are providing your baby with nutrients and experiencing life's natural high.
Producing breast milk consumes 25% of the body's energy; the brain only uses 20% by comparison.
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.
Stress May Affect Cortisol Levels
Studies have shown that breast milk from distressed mothers may contain higher levels of cortisol. As your stress level rises, the level of cortisol in your breast milk also increases. When your baby nurses, they may consume some of this extra cortisol.