UCLA faculty voice: When it comes to breastfeeding, a mother’s health and happiness matter too

Vivien Burt Robin Berman Dr. Vivien Burt is a professor emeritus of psychiatry and biobehavioral sciences and the co-director of the Women’s Life Center at the Resnick Neuropsychiatric Hospital at UCLA. Dr. Sonya Rasminsky is an associate clinical professor of psychiatry at UC Irvine. Dr. Robin Berman is an associate professor of psychiatry at UCLA. This column appeared March 3 in the Washington Post’s “On Parenting” blog. Whoever said, “Don’t cry over spilled milk” couldn’t possibly have been talking about breast milk. As reproductive psychiatrists who specialize in treating women who suffer from depression and anxiety during pregnancy and the postpartum, we see far too many tearful new mothers for whom breastfeeding is a source of self-recrimination. Doggedly determined to provide breast milk exclusively for their babies, these moms endure breast and nipple pain, around the clock pumping, sleep deprivation, anxiety, and chronic feelings of inadequacy — all for the sake of doing what’s “best” for their babies. As physicians, we think we know better, but as mothers, we too bought into the dogma that breast is best at all costs. We would never have taken our own advice: when it comes to breastfeeding, your health and happiness matter as much as your baby’s. Sheepishly we recently shared our secret stories of shame with one another: “I proudly accumulated a freezerful of stored breast milk by routinely pumping immediately after nursing. I was happ...
Source: UCLA Newsroom: Health Sciences - Category: Universities & Medical Training Source Type: news