Breastfeeding is the best food for the first months of a baby’s life and there is no doubt about that . We frequently talk about its benefits, both for the baby and for the mother, and we try to give the best advice so that all mothers can have a happy breastfeeding.
However, this is not always the case, and sometimes the pressure of exclusive breastfeeding can end up affecting the mental health of some mothers , who feel overwhelmed by feelings of guilt or depression after failing to do so.
When exclusive breastfeeding is not possible
Being a mother is not easy. In addition to being a great transformation of body and mind, motherhood presents many new challenges and experiences that were previously unknown to us . One of them is breastfeeding, which should start as soon as possible after the baby is born.
We know that it is the best, and even many women during pregnancy consider doing it exclusively once their baby is born, however, when it is born, some find problems that they did not expect and that prevent them from breastfeeding such as the one they had imagined .
Whether due to a health condition or the circumstances of the rhythm of life of each one, it is not always possible to achieve or have exclusive breastfeeding, which can cause a feeling with which many mothers feel familiar: famous guilt .
The fact of not being able to have a breastfeeding like the one they had dreamed or imagined, can be very discouraging for some women , and as we have discussed long ago, many parents think that having a painful or unsuccessful breastfeeding could be a of the causes of mothers suffering from postpartum depression. And apparently they weren’t so wrong.
According to an article published in this month’s issue of the journal Nursing for Women’s Health , when mothers fail to breastfeed exclusively, even with the right support, they feel anxious and / or depressed that they have not succeeded .
They even comment that the pressure to exclusively breastfeed has the potential to contribute to the appearance of symptoms of postpartum depression in those mothers who are not breastfeeding that they had imagined or had set out to achieve.
This had already been analyzed in a study carried out in 2011, in which after analyzing the experience of more than 2,500 women, it was found that those who had had negative experiences at the beginning of their breastfeeding were more likely to present symptoms of depression in both months of your postpartum.
The conclusion of both this study, and the current article, was that women who had difficulties in their breastfeeding should also receive psychological attention and be checked to see if they do not present symptoms of postpartum depression, in addition to continuing to analyze how a negative experience impacts with breastfeeding and the pressure to breastfeed on mothers’ mental health.
My experience with breastfeeding that was not what I expected
This topic is one that personally resonates a lot with me, as I was one of those mothers who had many problems with her breastfeeding , as I mentioned on my personal blog a few years ago. After an emergency cesarean section, I was separated from my baby for hours and we began mixed breastfeeding.
No matter how hard I tried, the misinformation and fears that I had as a new mother at that time, not knowing who to turn to and my return to work when my daughter was only two months old, meant that I never managed to increase my milk production and eventually, I gave up when my plans to exclusively breastfeed failed .
Although I did not have postpartum depression and was able to give even a small amount of my milk to my daughter for eight months, I did feel very emotionally affected by not being able to give her more breast milk and less formula. The reality is that I couldn’t handle the guilt and I felt that there was something in me that was wrong .
Months later I understood that despite everything I did the best I could, and although it was not the ideal or the best, at the end of all my daughter is a happy and healthy girl. Eventually I let go of the guilt and forgave myself for being so hard on myself in that difficult first year as a mom .
So yes, we must seek to do the best possible for our children and try to feed ourselves with breast milk, as it is the best for them. But if at the end of trying everything it is not possible to have the breastfeeding that we expected, we must also understand that we do the best we can and not let those feelings of guilt or sadness dominate us .
Photos | iStock
Via | Motherly In Babies and More | Maternity groups on social networks, a great support to overcome breastfeeding difficulties, A special relaxation therapy for breastfeeding could help breastfeeding moms to produce more milk
