OK, so here is my extremely unscientific and not-guilt-tripping-at-all analysis of this thread:
Important caveats:
- The thread was bound to attract higher numbers of people who are interested in bf and who found it a positive experience. MNetters who are not interested in/didn't enjoy bf are obviously more likely to stay away.
- The thread was also bound to attract people with a higher interest in personality type theories. The 16 different Myers Briggs types were not equally represented.
- I chose to exclude a few posters, usually because they gave two personality types.
- I grouped bf experience as either positive, negative, ambivalent or didn't bf. Inevitably this classification was subjective on my part. Many posters said they struggled at first but then it turned out great; as this is a very common pattern (the norm?) I counted those as positive. Ambivalent was if they said something like, "I liked some bits of it and hated others' or 'I'm pleased I did it because it was right for my child, but I didn't personally like it much".
- I counted breastfeeding experiences, rather than individuals. This was to allow proper repsentation of women who had different bf experiences with different children, but it does mean some types are over-represented.
Here's the data (posh word for a scribbled list on the back of an envelope!):
ENFP: 26 (17 positive bf, 8 negative, 1 ambivalent)
INTJ: 24 (22 positive, 2 negative)
INFP: 16 (11 positive, 2 negative, 2 ambivalent, 1 didn't bf)
INTP: 15 (12 positive, 3 negative)
ISFJ: 15 (9 positive, 2 negative, 4 ambivalent)
ISTJ: 13 (9 positive, 4 negative)
ENFJ: 13 (5 positive, 2 negative, 5 ambivalent)
ENTP: 12 (5 positive, 7 negative)
ESFP: 8 (6 positive, 1 negative, 1 ambivalent)
ESTP: 7 (3 positive, 1 negative, 1 ambivalent)
ISTP:6 (3 positive, 1 negative, 2 ambivalent)
ENTJ: 6 (5 positive, 1 ambivalent)
ESFJ: 6 (4 positive, 1 negative, 1 didn't bf)
ISFP: 3 (2 positive, 1 negative)
INFJ: 2 (2 ambivalent)
ESTJ: 1 (1 positive)
For people who haven't read up on Myers Briggs, here is a very, very rough explanation: the model assumes we are all born with a disposition, which is developed through life experience, to preferences in how we are energised, draw in information, make decisions and live our lives. Note that these are preferences, not skills or abilities. They are NOT a good predictor of what people will do, how they will behave, or what they will achieve.
The first letter - E or I - is about what energises and motivates us. Es (extraverts) are primarily energised by the external world, by contact with other people. They often do their problem-solving through thinking aloud, in conversation with others. Is (Introverts) are primarily energised by their internal world (though they may be highly socially skilled); they prefer to think things through before discussing with others, and are often more self-contained and less disclosing than Es.
The second letter - S or N - is about our preferred information sources. Ss (Sensing types) prefer to focus on reality, detail, lived experience, with a strong focus on the present, on what is 'real', demonstrable. Ns (Intuitive types) are more interested in the big picture, in new possibilities, in change and the future, in the connections between things, in breadth rather than depth.
The third letter - T or F - is about our priorities in decision-making. Ts (Thinking types) are head over heart: they give higher value to logic, reason and consistent criteria. Fs (Feeling types) are heart over head: they give higher priority to people, emotions, values.
The fourth letter - J or P - is about how we prefer to live our lives. Js (Judging types) prefer to be planful, ordered, structured. Ps (Perceiving types) prefer to be more flexible, spontaneous, unstructured.
This quick rundown doesn't give justice to the richness of the Myers Briggs model. The letters combine to give 16 different types which are more than the sum of their parts. The model also describes how parts of the different types become more or less dominant, and how they interact and develop over time. But the important thing to remember is that this is not about defining how people will behave, but about exploring people's motivations, preferences, and ways of understanding and communicating their own experiences.
So how does this apply to breastfeeding? We know that bf is multi-factorial and personality type cannot predict whether someone will bf, whether they will do so successfully, or how they will feel about the experience. So, as has already been said, Is may find the complete invasion of personal space amounted by bf (and indeed by early motherhood) particularly stressful. Es may suffer from the isolation. I wouldn't be surprised to find many Ss disliking the inability to know how much milk their baby is getting. Ts may describe their reasons for bf in terms of the evidence for why it is best for baby, while Fs may report that it 'feels like the right thing to do' or 'I just wanted to' (note that I am not saying that these types would be bf for different reasons, but they may communicate different priorities. Ps may particularly take to demand feeding, while Js may find the lack of order/inability to plan round demand feeding stressful.
In our sample, it's interesting to note that Is outweigh Es. Is that because Is are overrepresented among Mumsnetters, among breastfeeders? Is it possible that Es find bf too isolating? A higher proportion of the Is did find bf positive, though most of the Es did too.
On N-S, Ns were more strongly represented than Ss, though the proportions finding bf positive weren't significantly different.
There were almost equal numbers of F and T experiences, which is interesting as T-F is the only dichotomy with a gender imbalance (75% of women are F). Similar proportions of T and F found bf positive.
Ps outweighed Js, but not hugely and again the differences in positive/negative experiences weren't significant.
Anything else stand out? Well, INTJs seem to love breastfeeding! A few INTJ posters made the same point: that they value logic, order and structure. They say they breastfeed because all the evidence shows it is the best thing to do; they prepare for it and approach it methodically. If it is difficult, they assume there is a logical solution and they seek it out. As one said:"I place huge importance on my bf relationships. I think being a problem solver/analytical thinker helped. Whenever I had a problem with bf I went looking for the solution".
A couple of STJs mentioned that their focus on logic, detail and process found it hard for them to surrender to an inherently organic, flexible and uncontrollable process: "I am a very analytical, high achieving, logical, control freak... I found going with the flow and letting my baby lead very difficult indeed". But the majority of STJ experiences were still positive.
ENFJs were the most ambivalent. ENTPs had a high number of negatives.
Oh lordy, look at the time. I'm going to post this up now, and return to it tomorrow with a fresh brain. I'll be interested to hear anybody else's thoughts!