Nursing and the Creepy Crawlies: Breastfeeding Agitation

You might recognize it as the “creepy crawlies,” hot sweats, or just a general misery towards nursing when your milk lets down. Your nursing relationship with your older infant or toddler has been going just fine and then suddenly it’s driving you crazy! It’s not that you’re “all touched out,” or exhausted by nearly constant touch, but the act of nursing sets you on edge in the worst way. This is “breastfeeding agitation,” or nursing aversion, and it’s a common issue with probable roots in our biology.

Breastfeeding Agitation’s Link to Pregnancy and Tandem Nursing

Women first experience breastfeeding agitation during pregnancy with a new child, when they’ve been nursing their first child and suddenly milk ejection, or let-down, feels like being drowned. Dysphoria is often used to describe this feeling of dread, and it’s led some to call this occurrence “Dysphoric Milk Ejection Reflex.” Many mothers report experiencing their first bout of aversion about halfway through their second pregnancy, but it can occur anytime, although pregnancy and tandem nursing, or nursing more than one child, seems to be the most common.

The Primal Roots of Nursing Aversion

If you’ve ever spent time on a farm, you’ll probably recall seeing a mother cow kicking away her calf from her udders. Breastfeeding agitation feels just like this, as though nursing fills you with anger. You want to yell out and push away your child like never before. Wild mammals push away their young when it’s time to wean, and it is very likely that pregnancy or the birth of another child sets off the hormones in our bodies, making us believe on some evolutionary level that we need to wean. However, if you’re hoping to nurse your child for two years in line with the World Health Organizations recommendations, you may be searching for a way to get through nursing aversion.

Breastfeeding Agitation and Dopamine

To cope with nursing aversion, remember that these feelings are not negative attitudes towards your child or even your breastfeeding relationship, rather they’re the by-product of a chain release of hormones upon let-down. Milk is released from your breasts after your child’s sucking causes the hormone prolactin to rise in concentration. Dopamine, a mood altering hormone, aids in prolactin’s control, lowering its own levels to allow an increase in the milk-giving hormone. This drop in dopamine is thought to be responsible for breastfeeding agitation, and as dopamine stabilizes, your feelings of dysphoria will also subside. Still, even as dopamine levels return to normal, the frustration of this “icky” feeling tend to linger behind.

Coping with Breastfeeding Agitation

With most women, nursing aversion doesn’t last forever. To get through these periods of biological adjustment, it’s important to take care of your body and your mind. Get plenty of rest, drink lots of water, and don’t skip meals. You may also want to look into supplementing your diet with chelated magnesium, fish oils, and complex B vitamins. Your body needs all the ammo and energy you can provide it with to adjust to the changes in hormone levels.

Find a way to distract yourself through the first two minutes of nursing your older child. This might mean reading a book, making a phone call, or watching a light-hearted episode of your favorite television show.

Establish boundaries with your older child to keep you from going totally crazy. This might mean asking them to wait till you are feeling calm to nurse or asking them to wait for you patiently. Give plenty of warning about when you’ve had enough of their nursing sessions.

Counting down from ten seconds during the end of breastfeeding can turn boundary setting into a fun game!

Lastly, remind yourself that these feelings aren’t abnormal and relish in the time spent with your child when you’re not nursing. These moments are great memories to keep the guilt at bay when dysphoria sets in during your next breastfeeding session.