Mental Health and Breastfeeding

Hey friend!! It’s good to be back! I took a little hiatus over the holiday season to soak up time with my family, but in all honesty, I needed this time to work on me. I’m now 9 months post-partum and boy has it been a wild ride! While this recovery period has come with significantly more post-partum anxiety and depression than my recovery with my first baby, I am thankful for the experience because it helps me to genuinely understand and to honestly relate more personally to other mother’s feeling these same emotions. So, my dear friend, that has been the inspiration for this topic: Mental Health and Breastfeeding. Let’s dive in.

You wouldn’t be reading this if you weren’t currently breastfeeding, or preparing to, and that means that you already have an idea of how you expect your breastfeeding journey to go. As of summer 2022, the AAP joined WHO in recommending that babies be breastfed until at least the age of 2. While it’s up to every parent’s discretion what their personal breastfeeding goals are, any length of breastfeeding requires support, encouragement, and determination, not to mention, a good experience! While the ability to feed our babies is important, so is our mental health. Motherhood does not have to be martyrdom. I repeat. Motherhood does not have to be martyrdom. I want to talk about FIVE ways that breastfeeding and mental health are directly connected.

1. Support

What blows my mind is that a lot of mothers report not having support in their breastfeeding journey. If this is you, I want you to know that I am always here. I didn’t even know that lactation care providers existed until my first daughter was nearly a year old! There are also Facebook groups and community groups that are specifically for this experience! You do not have to go through this journey alone. While prenatal education for lactation is something I recommend to every mother, I especially encourage this for mother’s who do not have established support systems. Your journey will go much smoother if you stock your toolbelt with all of the right tools. Please don’t let lack of support be what stands between you and your goals.

2. Poor Latch/Supply Issues

Insufficient latching and milk supply is something that we lactation professionals see regularly, and it is typically straightforward to overcome. There are things that we can work on together to assess and retrain your baby’s latch as well as tips and tricks to try at each nursing session such as “tummy to mummy” and "nose to nipple". We also see mothers concerned about their milk supply, usually when the mother feels like her supply is too low. Again, there are things we can work on to increase your supply, but they do generally take a bit of time. When these hurdles pop up (I don’t like the word “problem”), there are almost always steps we can take to correct them, BUT, they do take time and effort and sometimes mother’s may start to doubt their abilities leading to anxiety and depression. Working with a professional can be worth its weight in gold. Correcting and providing insight on minor shifts in the beginning can really set the course for your entire breastfeeding journey.

3. External Pressures ****OOOH this one is controversial – hold on tight****

“Breast is best”. We’ve all heard it…but I disagree. Breast is the gold standard of infant feeding, yes, but an exclusively breastfed baby with a mother who is mentally and emotionally on a very slippery slope is NOT best. Again, motherhood does not have to be martyrdom. Its somehow become a socially acceptable norm for breastfed baby to equate to good parent and formula fed baby to equate to mediocre parent and there is nothing more that I despise than this. If you are struggling with your milk supply, supplement. Use formula. You are a good mother for keeping your baby fed. This is where I come in. While you supplement, we work on increasing your milk supply, slowly weaning baby off formula until they’re exclusively breastfed again (if this is your goal). Please try to ignore these external pressures to measure up in the way that you feed your child. A fed child is best. A healthy mother is best.

4. Internal Pressures

Like I mentioned earlier, you probably already have an idea of how you want your breastfeeding journey to go. This is not a bad thing. I want you to be confident in your ability to be a mother and to feed your baby appropriately. At the same time, I want you to be prepared for any hurdles that arise and run towards them with confidence that you’re your support system in place, you can soar right over them. Don’t let your brain’s fantasy rule over you. If you are struggling, reach out to a lactation professional in your area or send me an email. I would love the opportunity to talk with you.

5. Sleep deprivation

We need sleep to survive. Plain and simple. We need sleep for mental, physical and emotional wellbeing. Without it, we literally drain ourselves of the ability to function. Sleep schedules and routines will differ from family to family and even from child to child. My experience with my first child has been completely different than with my second. My baby is now 9 months old and I just now feel like I’m starting to sleep again and feeling the heaviness of the post-partum fog lifting. Our babies need to feed frequently. There is nothing we can do to change this. No rice added to their bottles or early introduction to solid foods, or any other outdated recommendation is going to change this. But, one thing I want you to remember is that there is light at the end of the tunnel. This is just a season even if it feels like a freaking long season. You are capable of this. You can do this. You will make it through. Consider reaching out to a sleep consultant to go over your baby’s developmental stage and work with them to find a schedule that works for you and your baby. All this to say, baby’s wake frequently to eat whether that’s with breastmilk or formula. You’re not doing anything wrong. In fact, you’re doing everything right by making it this far into this blog post.

Mom…You are exactly what your baby needs. You are capable and you are strong. If you need support, it is here. Sending you love and warm hugs.

XOXO - Your Boobie Bestie