Research question re PND and breastfeeding. Tiktok? Mears? Any contributions please.

[moondog]

In a (Heatlh) Trust presentation today hearing about PND. HV giving it said 9in regretful tone and said it was not info they would share with new mothers) that incidence of PND higher amongst women breastfeeding. but gave no references. Is this so??

Moony- if you see this- have tried to email you but they bounce back. Could you email me thepixiefish @ Yahoo dot co dot uk

without spaces etc

Well I have been really interested in this recently. Some one ( who has a PHD and knows a lot about brain biochemistry )told me that serotonin levels are higher in breastfeeding women. Don't know where she got that, would love to find a link to some research or something.... from my own point of view - Ds1 was BF for about 3 months. No PND. Found it totally overwhelming and exhaustiing having a baby - but no PND ( if only I'd known then how easy one was compared to 6 lOL)
DD1 - mild PND. She was BF for about 2 months. PND mild, never medicated. DD2 - BF for about 5 weeks - no PND.
DD3 - BF for 1 week. Bad PND - on antidepressants. But I did have a bad birth with her - lots of intervention, in hospital for 3 days which I HATED - exhausted by the time I got home and just threw the towel in on BF. Didn't feel especially bad about giving up BF - so not really due to that.
DD4 - no PND. BF for 2 years! Exclusively for 6 months then baby led weaning - so she still fed a LOT for about 15 months! Really exhausted due to lack of sleep - but definately no PND. THink the BF definately helped - but also did a lot of AP type stuff like babywearing and co-sleeping which I'm convinced had a positive effect on my mood.
DS2 BF exclusively till 7 months - tried baby led weaning but very interested. Now on purees at 8 months cause I need him to slep more. Has had some bottles of formula recently. Was thinking of weaning him but the less I breasfed the more I could feel my mood dipping. This could be realted though to really nt wanting to stop BF so was very upset about the thought of giving up. Now decided to try and BF a bit longer so trying to boost my supply again - and mod improved - but again could be due to I feel relieved at not stoping BF.
So not really conclusive! I was worried about getting PND again after DD3 but I do feel a lot of how we parented DD4 helped to ward it off - may be more than that involved though!

There doesn't seem to be any clearcut answer on this one from a research point of view. Some studies have shown that where bf goes well, the risk of depression is reduced.

This recent large review:

www.ahrq.gov/clinic/tp/brfouttp.htm#Report

concluded

"For postpartum depression, studies of moderate quality reported an association between not breastfeeding or short duration of breastfeeding and postpartum depression. It is plausible that postpartum depression led to early cessation of breastfeeding, as opposed to breastfeeding altering the risk of depression. Both effects might occur concurrently. Additional factors that may have a bearing on both postpartum depression and the decision to initiate or terminate breastfeeding should be sought. Documentation of baseline mental health status before the initiation of breastfeeding and detailed recording of breastfeeding data will improve the quality of the studies and help understand the nature of the association."

I can't understand why breastfeeding PER SE would be linked to poorer psychological outcomes, given that it's the biological norm and (as someone else has pointed out) is linked to higher serotonin levels, also high levels of prolactin and oxytocin ('mothers little helpers').

HOWEVER

When you take into account that most people's expectations of parenthood are shaped by the fact they live in a bottlefeeding culture, and when you know how many women are hindered from normal breastfeeding by the care they get during and after birth..... plus the fact that life is made so difficult for many breastfeeding mothers by dint of the fact they live in a society where breastfeeding is acceptable only if it's invisible....

Well - it makes perfect sense that PND should be higher in women who are breastfeeding.

I had PND after all of my pregnancies and this contributed each time to me giving up/feeling unable to BF, yet, strangely, the only time I felt calm was when I was BF, so I really should have tried to continue, but I was in a terrible place.

Am pregnant with No4 and will desperately try again to BF.