Strategies from Acceptance and Commitment Therapy can be very helpful when women have negative feelings during breastfeeding

Mind, emotions and body are profoundly interconnected in the breathtakingly complex ecosystem of a human being. Events of the flesh impact powerfully on our sense of well-being. Our mind and the experiences of our life, including breastfeeding, write powerfully into the body affecting cellular changes. Our body speaks back through our sensations and emotions.

When a woman's neurobiological terrain is already inclined to experiences of anxiety, distress, or stress, her body's sensations may be amplified. Because of the nature of the human mind, amplification of aversive bodily sensation might put her into a spin of unhelpful and despairing cognitions.

Strategies from Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, tailored for the perinatal period and found in the NDC Resource Hub, can be powerfully helpful in this situation.

The diagnoses of Dysphoric Milk Ejection Reflex (DMER) and Breastfeeding Aversion Response (BAR) validate the immensity of a breastfeeding woman's experience

Women often feel very guilty that they have negative emotions during breastfeeding, and worry about the effects on their baby. Having a name for these distinctive, breastfeeding-related negative emotions is vitally important, because the diagnosis validates the enormous personal cost to many women of breastfeeding their baby, the enormity of their commitment to the emotional and physical well-being of the baby. Women are committed to breastfeeding not because they are particularly self-sacrificing or lacking in perspective, but because they are committed to protecting their baby.

Having a way of naming a woman's experience of aversive feelings helps her know she is not alone. It is a first important step in societal acknowledgement of the extraordinary courage women demonstrate as they nurture an infant. The diagnoses of Dysphoric Milk Ejection Reflex and Breastfeeding Aversion Response help acknowledge and honour a woman's daily or hourly courage in the face of negative experience during breastfeeding.

Cessation of breastfeeding in the context of DMER and BAR needs to be supported as an appropriate response to the strong messages given to her by the breastfeeding woman's body's

In our complicated twenty-first century context, as health professionals we need to protect women as best we can from a societal pressure to continue to breastfeed (and be a 'good mother') when they have ongoing patterns of intense and negative emotional response to breastfeeding. Our role as health professionals is to inform her and support her choices, without judgement.

Recommended resources

Do you have a Dysphoric Milk Ejection Reflex? (This article includes treatments.)

Do you have a Breastfeeding Aversion Response?

What does the research say about Dysphoric Milk Ejection Reflex?

What causes Dysphoric Milk Ejection Reflex?

What does the research say about Breastfeeding Aversion Response?