Tense shoulders = no letdown?

[CharCharGabor]

I've been musing on this today. In the hospital when bfing was painful my was unconsciously tensing my shoulders when I was latching DD on. The midwives told me to relax otherwise my milk wouldn't let down. I believed them at the time, but following a lot of reading about bfing it doesn't seem right to me. From what I have read only extreme stress can restrict letdown and only temporarily. Am I right and were they talking shite? Wouldn't be a surprise, tbh.

bump

i found letdown difficult if i was tense and sometimes had to remind myself to relax.

Thanks, db. I don't recall ever having a problem with letdown because of being tense, although I'm a naturally tense person and often do it without thinking, so maybe my body has adjusted

I sometimes cannot get a letdown when expressing if I'm not comfortable. I have been on a course with work all this week and so have been sitting in the loos during coffee breaks trying to express. Feel so tense that can hardly get anything out even though my breasts are quite heavy with milk iyswim. It's better at my normal work where i have more privacy and time.

so it might be true...

I can rememeber the tension with dd1 causing problems with letdown and having to consiously drop my shoulders and breathe deeply. So yes definitely ishoos fpor me not with dd2 tho' possibly cause I was more worried about "other stuff" than bf!!!