Does BF affect your mood / emotions?

[potentialdogowner]

Pregnant with my third and I exclusively BF my previous two up to 12 months then quit cold turkey which worked well for me and both children. But for the first year of each of their lives I really struggled with anger, mood swings and ‘irrational’ reactions to things. I’m really not an angry person usually and I know my husband struggled to see my like that too. It did seem to fade gently after I stopped BF each time. So now I’m wondering if this is really a thing, and if so whether I should consider not BF this third baby to try and reclaim some of my normal self sooner!! Or is this just a normal ‘first year of baby’ experience. Any one else experienced this?

Do you think it was BFing or could it have been some PNI? That’s not to say your experience wasn’t real, it just might have been caused by something else?

Still breastfeeding my 2 year old 2-4 times a day and I was the same as you for maybe the first 12-14 months. Now my toddler sleeps through the night and is much easier to handle generally, I no longer feel angry or irrational. So it's not the breastfeeding, it's just that under 12-18 months, they're quite hard work.

And hope you don't mind I'd suggest you think about maybe reconsidering stopping at 12 months. That was the hard part of breastfeeding. The easy part comes next and it's a very useful tool with toddlers. It really calms them when needed, puts them to sleep when you need them to sleep, helps with teething, hydrates on a hot day etc. I only say this because I genuinely think that at 12 months you've only done the hard part.

I don't know the answer to your question but my hunch is that it won't just be breastfeeding causing the emotional surges you describe. I know non breastfeeding mums who know the first year emotional rollercoaster all too well. A few dads too! If you don't bf and end up feeling the same way, will you regret the choice?

This is interesting. I BF my first two to 14 months and weaned relatively easily. Eldest didn’t want to feed any more. Middle was down to one or two night feeds and we stopped by sending my husband into her when she woke for a week, which she was fine with.

Third baby is now 14 months old but is much more into feeding than the other two. Feeds at bedtime and morning and at least twice overnight. I’ve just recently returned to work and I am really struggling with feeding overwhelmed and tearful. Don’t know if BF is anything to do with it though!

Actually the one thing BF did affect negatively was my mood for sex. I was very, very dry in that area and I had less than zero mood for intercourse. We must have had sex 3-4 times in 18 months. I'm still BF but not at night so my periods have come back and ever since my periods have returned, our love life has been much better.

TBF my son didn't sleep for 18 months so neither of us felt in the mood much but the vaginally dryness was very real (and painful).