Stress and breastfeeding

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Stress can affect many women who are breastfeeding. Childbirth is stressful so it can be a common issue. When you’re stressing and breastfeeding you release cortisol and adrenaline through your breastmilk. This can lead to breast milk reduction and harm to the baby.

Weight loss can also affect women who are breastfeeding. If you’re breastfeeding, you need to be eating the right amount of protein and nutrition so that your child can be breast fed well. If you’re constantly eating food that does not have enough calories your body needs to produce breast milk, you will not produce the breast milk your baby needs. You also need to be cautious about what you eat because it is transferred to your baby through your breast milk.

Cortisol is a hormone that is released when you’re stressing a lot. When cortisol is released it boosts up your energy to handle your stress. This hormone is transferred through breast milk to your baby. Cortisol can affect your baby negatively. When cortisol is transferred through your breast milk it also makes the baby stressed.

According to this article written by Katie Domas, “Studies have found that breastfed babies have approximately 40 percent more cortisol in their systems than formula-fed babies, suggesting that the cortisol found in breastmilk is responsible for this increase. Called “secondhand cortisol,” the hormone enters the baby’s intestinal tract and prompts neurotransmitter signals that go to the brain, affecting the areas that regulate emotion.” As you can see, breastfeeding while stressing can affect your baby.

Not having enough calories can affect your breastfeeding. It takes about 500 extra calories a day to make breast milk. You get those extra calories through the foods you eat everyday and the fats that are already stored in your body. “As a mother who doesn't take in enough calories might cease producing milk,” Bridget Coila wrote in her article for Livestrong. Malnutrition can lead to weight loss, so be mindful about what you’re eating when you’re breastfeeding.