Does personality type affect breastfeeding experience? Anyone got any info? Lets do a mumsnet bit of research!

[mears]

I have had a google briefly but can't find anything at the moment.

I have had a lot of discussion about personality type recently and just completed an online test

It got me to wondering whether personality type has a bearing on the experience duration of breastfeeding.

My test result was ESFJ and I had a great experience.

My sister is ISTJ and had a completely opposite experience to me.

I thought it might be interesting to see what personality types and experiences were in the vastness of mumsnet.

The test doesn't take long if you are up for it

Meant to remind you that My test result was ESFJ and my sister is ISTJ.

i felt the same as you mears - initially i was feeding for up to 2 hours ata time but the feeding was more important than the time it took for me, and despite my pre-birth insistence that i would express so that DH could take his turn with night feeds that never happned - i only expressed when there was a problem.

and yet I am an ISTP so much nearer to your sister than to you - go figure!

Interesting though.

She is bloody minded to keep expressing.

I was bloody minded to keep feeding!

Very interesting idea for a thread.

I'm INTJ 'Strategist' - an overthinker and planner to a fault.

Found bf to be, quite unexpectedly, a breeze with both dds. A spot of mastitis when dd2 was 8 months was the only bad experience, but not bad enough to put me off.

I was INTJ - strategist. Was hell bent on bf, but the reality of sitting down for so long and so often made me miserable. Barely lasted 3 months.

Will still try again this time though [stubborn emoticon].

ISFJ here. Bf'd DS1 until 18 months, currently bf'ing DS2 who is now 7 months. No problems at all - loved bf'ing in fact. However have v fixed views on formula - largely am able to keep these to myself, recognising they are not to be used to beat people around the head with. However, feel this indicative of my v fixed sense of what is right and wrong...maybe?

I don't quite understand this 'I was determined/bloody minded..' thing though, surely if you tried to b'feed and failed its more to do with a whole cocktail of how it is for you physically/emotionally and the support and help you have had, rather than just because you are a less determined person than the woman who succeeded. I have overcome some big things in my life and consider myself an extremely determined person, but I couldn't get past the agonising pain that i had when i b'fed.

hazeyjane, I don't wish to offend anyone but I think some types of people just cope better with different things after birth, be it with no sleep, breastfeeding, socialising, going back to work etc.

I am bloody-minded with most things and cope fine with sleep-deprivation and breastfeeding (even with the pain) however, I cried like a baby over my CS scar and certainly wouldn't have been up to returning to work.

I know people who would ace at the Apprentice and make Alan Sugar look like a pussycat but cried off breastfeeding after two days because it was so hard, yet I know people who wouldn't get a job interview for volunteer shit-picking but have persevered through bleeding painful nipples and constant agony to continue breastfeeding.

I'd say a lot of that would come down to differences in personality type.

Hazy, for someone to say that she was bloody minded or determined is not the whole story of why she eventually succeeded. Likewise, it is not a judgement comment on the experience of anyone else who may have been just as or even more bloody minded or determined but eventually didn't succeed.

Life just ain't fair like that, unfortunately.

ISTJ the examiner here

BF DD1 for 12 months DD2 for 15 months and currently DD3 5 weeks

DD1 had some problems at the start due to jaundice would probably have given up but was very bloody minded and MN helped a great deal too.

DD2 and 3 have been a breeze probably from experience with DD1

INTJ

BF DS1 for 18 motnhs

BF DS2 - he's nearly 23 months and I feel it's time to stop

ENFJ myself - found bfing very hard at first (cracked bleeding nipples, painful lumps) but persevered because I am pig-headed and ended up loving it.

Sorry, i don't want the thread to get sidetracked, but when you say you cried like a baby over your cs scar, VictorianSqualor, maybe that's because it was more painful than someone elses, rather than your personality or pain threshhold. I know that it is down to lots of factors, but surely everyone does experience things differently physically as well. If I give birth without an epidural, it doesn't mean that I'm necessarily tougher than someone who has one within the first half an hour(I have done both, BTW!)

I agree hazeyjane, I am one of the most tenacious people I know and I got through an 18 hour back to back labour with no pain relief, just sheer bloody mindedness which is what made it so hard for me to admit defeat when I found the pain and difficulty of breastfeeding just too much. For 5 weeks I dreaded every single feed and in the end I just decided that was no way to enjoy my baby - perhaps that element of it is about your personality.

A friend who kept going for 6 months and hated every second actually said she wished she was as brave as me and could have given up earlier, she thinks she would have been happier.

I found all the "I perserved through pain/trauma/mastatis/depression/etc/etc" really difficult at the time - it made me feel worse that I was less of a person to not be able to get through this although I don't blame people for feeling proud that they did manage to get through it iyswim.

That is NOT to say btw that someone else who did have pain relief in my situation is any less of a person. Just wanted to clear that up

You are right hazeyjane, how do we know what pain is like for other people? It is something we cannot compare and it is not just about your "threashold" I don't believe.

ISFJ - The "Defender" - I struggled in the first few weeks with all the usual problems (sore nipples, long and frequent feeds) but am still feeding at 19 months. It was really important to me to bf but I've ended up enjoying it even more than I expected. In fact I've trained as a Mother Supporter and I'm thinking about doing bf counsellor training too

mears - interseting idea. but how woudl you take account of other Bf/birth/health issues and well as the personality of the baby?

Way back down the thread somewhere I said I was only thinking about this in relation to mothers and babies with no health issues Kristina

I suppose in a way I am thinking that personality influences whether we like routine or not with a baby - that kind of thing.

estp
3 highly lovely breastfeeding experiences
16mths with each one well 15mths with no3 actually
I just wanted to and did it.
I found it easy to do
I was lucky ;)

oh and 3 easy quick labours if that's relevant