Great conversation, Dr. B. Your guests did not address the correlation with difficulty BF and postpartum depression, which is a real concern for new mothers. Apparently interrupting the oxytocin cycle with pain and mental stress contribute to the development of PPD. I do agree that AAP guidelines should mention all you discussed, that maternal mental health is just as important (sometimes more so) as getting breastmilk into the baby. My own daughter was told, wrongly, to stop her meds during pregnancy, which I disagreed with. She did, and tried to BF with great difficulty, and had a depression relapse! These are really important issues. Thanks for highlighting.
Hi Susan, and thanks, as always, for your thoughtful engagement here. I'm so sorry and also not surprised that that happened to your daughter.... we have so much work to do. I also wanted to make sure you saw the 2022 systematic review that Dr. Nancy Byatt co-authored, which is discussed and cited in a couple of places in this conversation, that found wanting to breastfeed but being unable to spurred worse maternal mental health outcomes: https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/10.1089/jwh.2021.0504
Great idea! I'm publishing a deep dive on this topic in Slate either today or tomorrow, and will send it out to our community. Feel free to send that along, too. There are so many compelling reasons for us to change the status quo on this issue.
Great conversation, Dr. B. Your guests did not address the correlation with difficulty BF and postpartum depression, which is a real concern for new mothers. Apparently interrupting the oxytocin cycle with pain and mental stress contribute to the development of PPD. I do agree that AAP guidelines should mention all you discussed, that maternal mental health is just as important (sometimes more so) as getting breastmilk into the baby. My own daughter was told, wrongly, to stop her meds during pregnancy, which I disagreed with. She did, and tried to BF with great difficulty, and had a depression relapse! These are really important issues. Thanks for highlighting.
Hi Susan, and thanks, as always, for your thoughtful engagement here. I'm so sorry and also not surprised that that happened to your daughter.... we have so much work to do. I also wanted to make sure you saw the 2022 systematic review that Dr. Nancy Byatt co-authored, which is discussed and cited in a couple of places in this conversation, that found wanting to breastfeed but being unable to spurred worse maternal mental health outcomes: https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/10.1089/jwh.2021.0504
I hope to send this conversation to the AAP Section on Breastfeeding Executive Committee. This needs to be added to our policy statement!
Great idea! I'm publishing a deep dive on this topic in Slate either today or tomorrow, and will send it out to our community. Feel free to send that along, too. There are so many compelling reasons for us to change the status quo on this issue.