Does breastfeeding make you more prone to hormonal changes and low mood?

[QueenCharming]

I have a week old baby, I remember from dd1 that the first 3 months were the hardest time in my life with the sleep deprivation and breastfeeding issues I had.
This time I feel less stressed about breastfeeding and if it doesn’t work out like before then formula is not the end of the world. What I struggle with now is Baby blues, I hope it will pass but does bf make you more susceptible to low mood or ups and downs in mood? At points today I feel like If the sleep deprivation gets any worse then I won’t be able to cope. It’s harder in that sense with having another child who wants attention and needs my time too. Some part of me thinks I should switch to formula sooner rather than later (and struggle harder) so as to feel better about everything.

Bfing definitely doesn’t make you have a low mood, in fact it makes you produce oxytocin which is the love hormone.

If you’re feeling like this, please speak to your GP tomorrow, it’s best to seek help sooner rather than later.

Have you got soneone who can have DC1 today so that you and baby can get sone rest together?

What Jilted said. Other than day 3 when you get a massive dump of hormones which knock you off kilter with emotions usually, the actual breastfeeding itself releases warm fuzzy feeling hormones.

PND can be affected though I think by any feelings of pressure to bf or when bf is going badly or is very painful. So in that way it could be part of a PND problem. But not bf hormones themselves.

I stopped breastfeeding my second child at 5 months, the feeling of being constantly "touched out" was absolutely killing me (my children are close in age, 22 month gap, so toddler needs a lot from me too) and it got to the point where him latching on made me want to literally claw my skin off. I have PND and am on medication, my psych doubled the meds as soon as she found out I'd switched to formula. She was undermedicating me while I was breastfeeding as my second child is small and she was a little concerned that it might have been medication related.