Myths about breastfeeding.

[VictorianSqualor]

What common misconceptions surround breastfeeding?

What have you or others been told by nosey well meaning people about what isn't possible?

Is there anything you hear or or see often that makes you want to smack your head off a wall and shout 'IT'S NOT TRUE!!'?

(Would like people to post the first ones they thnk of even if someone else has already said it as I want to see how common they are)

lol SM, my dd was only saying about 50 words by her second birthday. must be because i fed her too often.

Tink: women can successfully breastfeed is very stressful situations. maybe it inhibits letdown (oxytocin) for a slightly longer time at the start of each feed but surely the release of oxytocin when it comes, provides relief from some of the stress she is feeling, so as long as she allows a baby to feed and not cut short a feed, there is no reason why her supply ought to diminish in the long run.

Oxytocin is the love hormone so it's release does have a pleasant effect, but stress can inhibit it's release which is essential to the let down reflex. She can increase it with lots of skin to skin time though even when feeling stressed. Maybe the level of stress is important too. Just like pain different people have different ideas of what "stress" means. I successfully breastfed my daughter 10 months after losing her sister, having her at 31 weeks with a GA section and everything that goes with a premature baby plus I was dealing with PND. I think it's more about how you react to stress, just as it is with pain.

I always equate it to making love. If you are not in the right frame of mind/ mood then you're not going to release oxytocin which lowers your sexual receptiveness, will stop you from being lubricated enough and will prevent orgasm. In the same way you need to be in the right frame of mind or mood to be start with, the oxytocin will make you feel even better. I was just reading that it increases your desire to continue in sex and breastfeeding.

I think that if MWs and HVs can help a mother to calm/ wind down a little that it will go along way to helping. All this talk that people have posted about BM not being good enough is going to affect things "my BM should be enough for her, what am I doing wrong?" Then she (MW/HV) is starting a cycle, it becomes a self fulfilling prophecy.

Tink, sorry to hear of your loss. But while i agree you bf under a lot of stresss, remember too that women have bf through wars, and deep struggles to find food, shelter, long term emotional turmoil in day to day living etc, rather successfully. It is a love hormone but i cannot equate it to lovemaking. It is released by nipple stimulation rather instinctively and I suppose from a love that transcends sex.

Stress may cause a temporary inhibition of the letdown reflex so making a mother aware of this and not to panic and offer formula is more important than the presence of stress in her life. A big change to her routine may be stressful and may unintentionally offer less feeds or shorter feeds and may experience a drop in supply, but once again, this is due to a direct lack of nipple stimulation, not stress. Encouraging or reminding a mum to use bfing as a way to relax (bf lying down for example) can help her offer more feeds and provide relief from stress at the same time.

I think the role midwives etc play is more important than the lack or presence of stress. That is, will they make a woman confident of her ability to bf. While they can reassure mothers in a stressful situation, nothing will influence the presence of milk more than the presence or absence of nipple stimulation and a good latch.

may have already been said, but my paediatrician told me to stop bf at 6 months as there was 'no nutritional value' after then. grrrrr

I agree with you entirely, Kiskidee.
Also, regarding stress inhibiting let-down, this is one of the reasons that midwives recommended an alcoholic drink when settling down to the evening feed. It wasn't to 'make' the milk, it was to relax the mother so that let-down was encouraged. I realise this view is not popular, now.

No, just the evening feed, Starlight, sorry

Well I only know what I was taught on my Peer Supporter course and that is the NHS's offical line. There's plenty out there that will tell you about stress inhibiting let down if you do a search for it. KellyMom or lowmilksupply.org for example.

I do think think though that you can go through wars and stuff and still breastfeed because a lot of the stress that inhibits is to do with breastfeeding. Although I went through a lot of stress when it came to breastfeeding I could focus on it, I could take the time I was nursing as a moments break from everything around. When someone is struggling with breastfeeding they're not in the right frame at the time, they're stressing as they're doing it, it's not a break from it.

Breastfeeding and sex are nothing alike, I agree, but oxytocin is always oxytocin. If you are under stress when giving birth oxytocin isn't released - to do with giving birth in the wild, if a mother is in danger then adrenalin is released and oxytocin inhibited to slow down the labour so she can get to a safe place first - in any circumstance where oxytocin is required, stress will inhibit it.

I'm not just saying these things because it's what I think, it's what I've been trained in and I've done the research for my course to back up what I've been taught.

i've used the LLL Book of Answers for guidance, tink. i am familiar with the kellymom reference. i think this discussion is partly coming down to interpretation of our part.