“From the scare, the milk was cut off.” It is a quite popular phrase, especially among older women, when talking about lactation and maternity. They always know someone, or someone who knows a mother who ran out of milk in disgust.
Although popular belief is exaggerated by the suddenness, it is scientifically proven that the hormones that stress situations generate directly affect a mother’s milk supply. So the answer to the question of whether you can stop breastfeeding because of a scare, the answer is yes, but with nuances.
The importance of a mother in labor being calm and in an environment where she feels safe is not a matter of fashion. It is a fact that, scientifically, it has been shown that it helps childbirth, in the face of stressful situations, which make it difficult and can cause it to lead to medical interventions.
Something similar happens with lactation. When a person is in a stressful situation, his body secretes cortisol, adrenaline, and norepinephrine, three hormones that are designed to help the body get through that moment, but also have a negative side effect on lactation. If stressful situations occur regularly, a nursing mother’s milk supply can be drastically reduced.
Breastfeeding has a great advantage over formula milk, and that is that it allows the mother to transmit the benefits of her immune system to the baby. But it can also transmit harmful elements, which is why it is recommended not to drink, smoke or take drugs, for example.
If the mother is under continuous stress, her milk will also carry these stress hormones and they will be passed through lactation to the baby. The effects that this can have in the long term are not yet known, but there are studies that suggest that nursing babies of mothers with high levels of stress cry more and are more agitated.
Managing stress during breastfeeding not only benefits the baby; Above all, it benefits the mother. For this reason, it is important to help her to be calm and that she herself put into practice things that can help her reduce stress, such as:
