Breastfeeding and stress. How the emotional state of the expectant mother affects the child
anonymously
Hello! I ask for advice. It's been a year since I became a mother. I have a good, cheerful child, however, very attached to me, and is afraid of strangers, he is 1.1. But I feel worse and worse, frequent dizziness, bad mood, loss of strength. She underwent examinations - there are no health problems, only a slight disturbance of the heart rhythm. In the mornings, there is only one desire - it would be soon evening to put the child to bed and go to bed herself. I don’t know what to play with him, I don’t know how, I don’t remember that they played with me somehow in childhood. Because of this, I constantly feel like a bad mother, I feel that I do not give him knowledge and development. They tried something (sculpting, drawing, applications) - he is not interested. Together we watch books, educational videos, cards, walk on the playground. In the store and in transport, he always cries, so we rarely go out with him somewhere. I just can’t put things in order in the house, and because I look at the mess, at the unresolved problems of life all the time, the mood deteriorates even more. Lately there have been problems with food. Often I don’t know what I would like to eat, I don’t have time to cook, there is no desire to do it - as a result, I eat harmful things (tea with cookies, sweets, whatever is at hand). I also suffer from the fact that I cannot organize myself, and I also have to organize my husband so that at least something is done. Constant heaviness in the soul prevents you from living a full life, taking care of your son and home. Before the decree, I worked as a designer in a small firm, and I will not return there for a number of reasons. Where to go to work, how to realize myself - this is another task that I cannot solve. Sometimes it seems to me that I do not love my child and husband. I understand that it's not about the child, because many, while on maternity leave, have much more time than I do. It's about myself. But how to cope with such a state of mine (it seems that I do not live, but survive), I do not know. I would be grateful if you could point me in the right direction to start.
You need to rest. You are just tired. Shift (at least for a while) part of the burden associated with the baby to your husband and other loved ones. Pay attention to yourself. Go visit a friend. To the cinema. Take a walk. Feel yourself and your needs ... And most importantly - do not scold yourself in any case - FOR ANYTHING - neither for the mess, nor for the inability to play with the child. And when you stop raping and scolding yourself, I assure you that your natural feeling of attachment to loved ones will be released and fill you with joy and energy. And a child can play with other children - on the playground, in a nursery, etc. Anyway, soon it will be easy. I hope you have guests at home, including those with children. So you are not obliged to play in the sense of "entertaining" the baby, but to develop him in a playful manner is your main task as a parent. Here it is advisable to stock up on literature or at least educational games - they usually have inscriptions for what age they are intended for. And believe me - it's not boring at all, it's joyful and exciting. Although now the main thing is still rest!
anonymously
Elena, thank you very much for your reply! But the fact is that the standard ways of relaxing for a mother sitting at home with a baby (going shopping, going to a cafe, visiting a friend, cinema, etc.) no longer help me, even reading books and a fragrant bath (everything you can Houses). And I don’t have other opportunities, for example, a trip for a couple of days, I still feed. Apparently, it's time to stop GW, because. My attitude towards this has become more often negative (non-freedom). I always have the feeling that something is pressing on my heart, and there is no desire to do something. How else can you help yourself so as not to break down on loved ones?
The most natural way out is to rest and change the rhythm of life. For example, start going to some courses, or at least to the pool, or, for example, to yoga. It can also be helpful to hit the pillow for 15 minutes a day to let off steam. At first you may not like it, but then you will get into the taste. At the same time, aggression is thrown out, and tension in the body is redistributed ... Any relaxation methods can also be useful - lie on your back on the floor with your buttocks against the wall, and lift your legs and lean against the wall; Lie down like this for a few minutes, pressing your spine to the floor. Or - jump, chaotically, vigorously; or - fight with your husband as a joke (pillows, for example). You cannot enumerate all the possibilities, each needs to be repeated. But the most important thing is that it’s good for you to change the situation, and if it doesn’t work out, then change something in your everyday life ... Search, try and - write! I'll be waiting!
A number of scientific studies conducted in recent years have made it possible to take a fresh look at the problem of personality psychology, the psychology of life and death, the origins of mental and physical health, due to various circumstances and factors of perinatal development. First of all, these are the works of foreign researchers: S. Grof, J. Graber, F. Dolto, X. Nickel, S. FantiD. Verni, A. Bertinaidr. Among domestic scientists, E.K. Ailamazyan, V.V. Abramchenko, A.S. Batuev, G.I. Brekhman, A.I. Brusilovsky, K. Heidebrand, A.I. Zakharov, Yu. Zmanovsky, N.N. Konstantinova and others. Briefly summarizing the conclusions of the studies of these authors, we can say that they consider the perinatal stage of life as the first stage of human existence, where various factors have a significant impact on the developing organism and psyche, and the interdependence of the spiritual, mental and somatic is the most obvious and reliable.
The most important factors affecting the child are those of the mother. It is the mother who is the author of the life scenario of the child, which he subsequently reproduces in his life.
For the formation of a child, not only what the mother ate and what was the state of her health is far from being different, her psychological well-being, harmonious relationships with others, the absence of fears about childbirth and the life of the child, excessive emotional reactions to stress are no less important. Tradition prescribed careful observance of the rules aimed at protecting the peace of mind of a pregnant woman, because. it is her psyche that forms the qualities of the infant's psyche.
Studies have confirmed the special significance of the first reaction of a woman to the fact of pregnancy for the formation of the qualities of the child's psyche. A negative reaction gives rise to the most severe mental problems, the mother lays the so-called program of "death and self-destruction" in the very deep layers of her child's unconscious. This is quite understandable, given the fact that time in the womb flows differently, it is condensed, so the impact of the mental vibrations of a pregnant woman in the early stages of intrauterine development forms the deepest layers of the child's psyche and influences his entire subsequent life.
In the perinatal period, global transformations take place in the body and psyche of a woman, a woman's attitude towards her unborn child is developed. The nature of this relationship can be judged by the peculiarities of the interaction of the expectant mother with him, the presence or absence of imaginary communication. Therefore, the perinatal development of a child is not "maturation", but rather resembles, according to V. Sinelnikov, the process of electroplating - applying a gold coating to a plate of ordinary metal. And the mother is that master jeweler who creates a work of art from a simple natural material. But it is also the source of those properties that the child will receive. She is his first universe in which he finds his existence.
A mother's love for her child, her thoughts about him, communication with him expand the emerging capabilities of the child, his cellular memory, determining the main strengths of the personality. If the mother consciously prepared for conception and childbirth, tried to stay in a positive state throughout the pregnancy, was sensitive to her desires and needs, during pregnancy imagined the unborn child, his appearance, character, listened to the movements, tried to understand their language, with gentle touches to the stomach stimulated a response, came up with a name for a boy and a girl, felt the child both as a part of herself and, at times, as a separate being, then a harmonious perinatal matrix is formed.
We have conducted an empirical study of the transmission of the first script messages of the mother to the child, life positions and functional ego-states of women in labor, which affect the somatic state, pathology of pregnancy and childbirth. The study included 30 women aged 17 to 37 years. The following were used in the study: structured interview "Early scenario programming"; questionnaire "OK-Thomas" for the construction of the OK-Corral of the subjects; questionnaire "Personal style" to identify their egogram; questionnaire "Working style"; questionnaire "Internal ego-states". The data obtained were supplemented by clinical and anamnestic information.
The study was conducted in the modality of transactional analysis. Great assistance in the study was provided by medical workers of maternity hospital No. 1 in Ryazan, consultations of the candidate of medical sciences Khovrachev A.P., participation in the experimental study of a student of the Faculty of Pedagogy and Psychology of the RSU. S.A. Yesenina Guskova A.A.
At the first stage, we used a structured interview "Early Scenario Programming", aimed at determining the social status of a woman, to study the general anamnesis, the course of pregnancy and childbirth, the absence or presence of pathologies of both the mother and the child. Also considered were the age, level of education, marital status not only of the woman in labor, but also of her close relatives: parents, husband. The key questions of the interview are formulated in such a way that they allow revealing the features of the communicative experience gained in childhood, the woman's experience of pregnancy, and her attitude towards the unborn child.
Considering the age of the woman in labor, the following conclusions were made:
1. The older the women in labor, the higher their level of education;
2. The number of diseases increases with age, comorbidities and bad habits decrease;
3. The older the woman in labor, the worse the period of breastfeeding, the women in labor are in the VD ego state, and the SD loses its significance with age.
An analysis of the woman's communicative experience speaks of its significance. The first personal education that develops in communication can be considered as the first contribution to the formation of future parental behavior. If the experience of communication with close adults was positive, this means that the starting conditions for the formation of a subjective attitude towards other people were favorable and the basis for the formation of a subjective attitude towards one's child has been laid.
We assumed that the nature of the early communicative experience gained by a woman in labor in communication with close adults can be judged by the effective traces left in her first memories of herself and her parents, their parenting style, and her attachments.
If the parents were affectionate, communication left a bright mark on the woman’s memory, if there was a strong attachment to the mother or other relatives, then in early childhood the woman had a favorable experience of emotional communication, which puts her in more favorable conditions in predicting future maternal behavior compared to those who had no such experience. And here we are talking about the fact that the mechanism has been launched: the parent program has begun to operate.
In the second phase of our work, the process of transmission of early prescriptions was examined. We were prompted to do this by the following assessment of the role of the perinatal period: the nature of the course of pregnancy, childbirth, and the first days of life results in powerful script prescriptions that form not only the degree and nature of future psychopathology, but, perhaps, are responsible for the “death drive”.
We are talking about this because when analyzing the 12 classic types of prescriptions identified by M. and R. Goulding (1979), namely:
1. Don't live (perish, die);
2. Don't be yourself;
3. Don't be a child;
4. Don't grow (stay small);
5. Don't make progress;
6. Don't do (don't do anything);
7. Don't be the first (don't be the leader, don't stick out);
8. Don't belong;
9. Don't be intimate;
10. Don't feel good (don't be healthy);
11. Don't think;
12. Don't feel.
In the perinatal period, only two are explicitly found. These are the injunction "Don't be yourself" given by a mother expecting the birth of a child of the opposite sex, and the curse "Don't live" which is the result of all the negative influences of this period.
If we consider the total impact of all forms of transmission of the message "Don't live", then in our study there was not a single child who would not have received it in one way or another.
The question arises: “Why do parents give the child the order “Don’t live”? This seems to be because in their Child ego state, the parent feels that their own child is interfering or threatening. Or perhaps the woman already has several children and no longer wants to have them. "Quite by accident" she still gives birth to another child. In the Child ego-state, she cries, “No! I don't want more! I want to pay attention to my desires! She will most likely suppress her Child's rage without admitting it even to herself, however, in hidden ways, she conveys her rejection of him to the born child.
It must be remembered that the child may feel the threat of death due to the behavior of the mother or external events that seem completely harmless to an adult. Subsequently, the child may give himself the command "Don't live" if the mother secretly betrayed him, for example, the following message: "You hurt me when you were born." (Berne called this the "Torn Mother" script.) In this case, the child may decide: “By my birth I hurt my mother, therefore I deserve to be tormented or killed.”
Fortunately, people are doing their best to stay alive. In the early years of life, a child with the "Don't Live" order is likely to make difficult decisions to protect himself from a fatal outcome. These decisions can be made in the form: "I will live until ..." The ellipsis can be filled with various decisions, for example, "... I will work hard" or "... if I do not get close to people." Terrible conclusion...
A mother given the command "Don't live" as a child can convey this message to her son or daughter. She believes that this will bring release from the command given to her. On a psychological level, she tells her child: "If you perish, then I will not die." Thus, this command is like a relay baton that is passed down from generation to generation.
For another prescription, we got the following figures: 10% of mothers made no plans about the preferred sex of their child; 50% wanted to give birth to a boy; 40% wanted to give birth to a girl; 33% of mothers were disappointed in their expectations, and a corresponding percentage of children were instructed to "Don't be yourself." At the same time, their non-verbal message will be: "Don't be a boy (girl)." This can be expressed in the choice of a name for the child: a girl can be called a male name, and a boy - a female one. The girl will be dressed "under the boy", and the boy - "under the girl".
In adult life, a person who has the command "Don't be a boy (girl)" may continue to wear clothes and have habits that correspond to the other sex.
"Don't be yourself" is a more general command and is usually conveyed by the message: "Don't be yourself, be another child." Parents may prefer a younger child to an older one or a brother to a sister, compared with other children. In this case, the mother keeps the image of the desired “ideal child”. Therefore, she reacts positively only to those aspects of her real child that resemble this image, and ignores the rest.
Naturally, it was interesting for us to see how this or that form of script prescription is determined. It turned out that age, level of education, marital and financial status are not significant. The earliest modes of transmission of "Don't Live" through pregnancy pathology were significantly and positively correlated (r = + 0.417; P< 0,002) с выраженностью Адаптированного Детского эго-состояния матери, тогда как первая экзистенциальная позиция «Я - ОК, Ты - ОК» была для них препятствием (г = - 0,351; Р < 0,01).
This life position was interconnected with the large height and weight of born children (r = + 0.356; P<0,01 и г = + 0,282; Р<0,03, соответственно), что может быть расценено как наличие сценарного послания «Живи».
Curses received through the pathology of childbirth correlated with the second life position “I am not OK, You are OK” (r = + 0.264; P<0,04). Эта корреляция подтверждается и более низкой оценкой новорожденных от женщин с данной позицией по шкале Апгар (г = - 0,275; Р < 0,03), свидетельствующей о принятии младенцами летального материнского предписания.
Children's pathology, received during the first five days of life, negatively correlated with the first existential position (r = - 0.275; P< 0,03). А послания, передаваемые через нарушения лактации, оказались детерминированы выраженностью материнского эго-состояния Контролирующего Родителя (г = + 0,377, Р < 0,004).
In contrast, an increase in the Adapted Child's ego-state prevented lactation disorders (r = -0.263; P< 0,04).
However, the ego-state of the Adapted Child as a whole was a favorable factor in the transmission of the "Don't Live" curse, as assessed by the total number of negative perinatal influences (r = + 0.247; P< 0,05). Принятие данного летального предписания, отслеживаемое по нарушению питания ново рожденного, также было связано с выраженностью эго-состояния Адаптированного Дитя у матерей (г = + 0,279; Р < 0,03), тогда как усиление жизненной позиции «Я - ОК, Ты - ОК» свидетельствовало об обратном процессе (г = -0,300; Р< 0,02).
Thus, the results obtained indicate a clear, but structurally complex relationship between the style and the existential basis of maternal behavior with the transmission of lethal instructions.
At the third stage of the study, we conducted a correlation analysis of the relationships between life positions and the activity of functional ego states, as well as a more detailed analysis of the relationship between the severity of individual ego states and obstetric pathology. Our parents had Parent, Adult, and Child ego states. They gave us script messages from these three ego states, and we received and distributed them to our three ego states.
In the ego-state of the Controlling Parent (CR) built on the basis of the test results, the ego-state of this group was minimal. The Caring Parent (CA) and the Adult ego-state (A) prevailed over the others. The severity of the ego-states of the Free Child (SD) and the Adapted Child (AD) almost did not differ from each other.
In general, the resulting egogram looks pretty standard and well and does not indicate pregnancy and childbirth as a serious mental disorder, and, it would seem, does not portend big script messages.
Analysis of the relationship of ego states with obstetric pathology was not so encouraging. Thus, for example, the most dominant ego-state of Caring Parent (PC) was positively correlated at a significant level with obstetric pathology during past pregnancies (r = 0.253; P< 0,05), соматической патологией, ассоциированной с беременностью (г = 0,-327; Р < 0,02) и патологией родов (г = 0,259; Р < 0,04).
This nature of the relationship allows us to speak about the predominance of the negative component in the ego-states of the Caring Parent (PC), which is realized in the position of the Savior and, therefore, attempts to solve the problems of their own depressive radical through self-sacrifice.
The Adaptive Child (AD) ego-state was positively associated with pathology of early maternal development (r = 0.248; P<0,05). Нарастание Адаптивного Дитя (АД) сопровождается статистически значимым снижением уровня патологии предшествующих родов (г = -0,300; Р<0,03) и нарушений лактации (г = - 0,263; Р < 0,04). Анализ причинных связей данных корреляций показал, что это снижение происходит за счет увеличения патологии плода во время беременности (г = 0,417; Р< 0,003), снижения роста и веса новорожденного (г = -0,320; Р<0,02 и (г = -0,250; Р<0,05) и нарастания нарушений питания новорожденного (г = -0,279; Р<0,03).
Thus, here we are dealing with the transmission of pathology to the next generation. Of course, this moment should be one of the main focuses of corrective work in psychoprophylactic sessions with pregnant women.
A constructive attitude to one's behavior, manifested in the functioning of the ego-states of the Adult (B), positively correlated with a decrease in the time between the woman's admission to the maternity hospital and the moment of the birth itself (r = 0.310; P< 0,02). Кроме того выраженность Взрослого (В) эго-состояния отрицательно соотносилась с акушерской патологией во время прошлых беременностей (г = -0,410; Р< 0,003) и патологией прошлых родов (г = 0,365; Р< 0,006).
In general, the obtained results are consistent with the TA theoretical position on the problem-solving function of the Adult (B) ego-state, the increase of which could be the goal of therapeutic work with pregnant women.
Their distribution turned out to be as follows: the life position “I am OK, You are not OK” is expressed to a lesser extent, while the rest are approximately equal. Attention is drawn to the value of the life position “I am not OK, you are OK” and “I am not OK, you are not OK”, indicating a significant basal personality pathology. In this regard, the prevalence of the Caring Parent (PC) in the egogram acquires the character of a protective mechanism that triggers the functions of the "Savior". This should lead to neglect of the child's needs in the course of the mother's desperate attempts to compensate for her own depressive radical through overprotective behavior.
This point of view was confirmed in the course of a correlation analysis, which reveals a statistically significant positive dependence of the Caring Parent ego-state (PC) as with the life position “I am not OK, you are OK” (r = 0.547; Р< 0,001), обращающей депрессивность сценарного решения самой роженицы, так и с позицией «Я - не ОК, ты - не ОК» (г = 0,260; Р< 0,003), что свидетельствует о предпочтении переключения к роли «Жертвы» для подтверждения правильности сценарных решений.
The severity of ego-states of the Controlling Parent (CR) positively correlated at a statistically significant level with the life position “I am OK, you are not OK” (r = 0.458; P< 0,001) и негативно - с позицией «Я - не ОК, ты - ОК» (г = - 0,490; Р < 0,001), отражая наличие у ряда рожениц защитного механизма паранойяльного типа и готовности занять место «Преследователя».
The most disturbed basic adaptation strategy, arising from the life position “I am not OK, you are not OK”, revealed the negative features of the depressive position. The depressive radical manifested itself in a positive correlation between the severity of this existential position and the somatic pathology associated with pregnancy (r = 0.404; P< 0,003).
The avoidant existential position, as well as the BP ego-state, was positively associated with an increase in the time between a woman's admission to the hospital until the moment of delivery (r = 0.252; P< 0,04), создавая таким образом возможность для развития патологических стратегий. Здоровая жизненная позиция «Я - ОК, ты - ОК», наоборот, сокращала промежуток времени между поступлением женщины в роддом и моментом родов (г = 0,296; Р<0,03). Ее усиление уменьшало выраженность акушерской патологией во время прошлых беременностей (г = -0,300; Р<0,03). Однако отсутствие значимых корреляций данной позиции с активностью эго-состояний Заботящего Родителя (ЗР) и Контролирующего Родителя (КР), а особенно Взрослого (В) и Свободного Дитя (СД), при наличии такой взаимосвязи с эго-состоянием Адаптированного Дитя (АД) (г = 0,294; Р < 0,03), возможно отражает функциональную регрессию родильниц во время столь значимого события как рождение ребенка.
Conclusions from the results of the study
1. It was revealed that each woman in labor who was in the research group had one or another degree of health disorder or pathology of pregnancy and childbirth.
2. It has been established that the nature of the course of pregnancy and childbirth results in powerful scenario instructions that form not only the degree and nature of the future pathology, but are also responsible for the “death drive”.
3. Of the twelve classical types of prescriptions identified by M. and K. Goulding, only two are explicitly found in the perinatal period. These are the injunction "Don't be yourself", given by a mother who is expecting a child of the opposite sex, and the curse "Don't live", which is the result of all the negative influences of this period.
4. When considering the total impact of all forms of transmission of the scenario message "Don't live" in the studied group, there was not a single child who would not have received it in one way or another.
5. When considering one or another form of scenario prescription, it was revealed that age, level of education, marital and financial status are not significant.
6. The results obtained indicate a clear, but structurally complex relationship between the style and the existential basis of maternal behavior with the transmission of lethal instructions. Therefore, a more detailed study of the real picture of the transmission of perinatal script messages seems to us to be an extremely topical issue.
7. The conducted correlation analysis reflects the presence of a significant basal personality pathology, the central core of which is the actualization of basal anxiety.
Thus, we believe that it is an extremely urgent task to provide pregnant women with professional psychological assistance, either on its own or as part of a system of psychoprophylactic preparation for childbirth.
LITERATURE
1. Brusilovsky A.I. Life before birth. M., 1991. S.12-42.
2. Bern E. Games that people play. M., 2001. S.189-286.
3. Buyanov M.I. A child from a dysfunctional family. M., 1988.
4. Vasilyeva O.S., Mogilevskaya E.V. Group work with pregnant women: socio-psychological aspect // Psychological journal. 2001. T. 22. S. 82-89.
5. Grace Craig. Opinions and facts: is it possible to train a child before birth? // Psychology of development. 2000. No. 2. P. 164. 6. Zakharov A.I. Children's neuroses. SPb., 1995.
7. Lisina M.I. Communication, personality and psyche of the child. Voronezh, 1997. S.44-72.
8. Pernu L. I am expecting a baby. M., 1986. S. 27-40.
9. Ravich R. The secret life of an unborn child // Family and school. No. 9. 1995. S. 10-12.
10. Hay J. Transactional Analysis for Trainers Watford, UK, Minneapolis, USA, Sherwood Publishing, 1996. 256 p.
Attachment, or the desire to establish and maintain contact and intimacy, is a basic human need from cradle to grave. We need close people when we come into this world, and we long to see loving faces when we leave it. For a small child, there is nothing worse than the sudden feeling of abandonment, the loss of contact with the adults who care for him.
In order to maintain a child's sense of continuity of connection, it is important not only the physical presence of people close to him, but also their emotional involvement in the relationship. Emotional unavailability, coldness in communication are perceived by the baby as a loss of contact and intimacy, the child develops separation anxiety and distress.
Dr. Edward Tronick, director of the Department of Child Development at Harvard University, conducted a laboratory experiment called the Still Face Experiment. In the experiment, he asked parents to sit and play with their little child in the way they usually do. The experimenter then asked the parent to stop contact with the child. The mother or father was instructed to continue looking at the baby, but to give his face a fixed or absent expression.
At the beginning of the experiment, mother and baby are attuned to each other, their emotions are synchronized. The mother is then asked to make a "lifeless face" and not respond to the baby's reactions. Almost instantly, the baby begins to protest against the loss of contact, attachment. We see (in the literal sense) how the child's defensive reactions turn on. These reactions are instinctive, they do not depend on the mind. When the mother again begins to emotionally react to the child, he quickly comes to his senses, calms down, the protection is replaced by emotional contact with the mother.
In this experiment, the emotional "reunion" occurs quite quickly and does no harm. But imagine if a baby is in situations for a long time when they do not respond to his needs: a mother is depressed or it is not customary in the family to “baby” with a baby, or there is no corny family.
For example, children whose mothers were depressed in their first year of life are much more likely to develop psychopathology than children from the control group. Many children from orphanages, who from birth did not have the opportunity to form a relationship with an adult (they were always alone in their beds, and the staff monitored only hygiene and diet), a severe underdevelopment of the orbitofrontal zone of the cerebral cortex, which is responsible for controlling over emotions.
Childbirth is induced by a certain ratio of several hormones. The woman is under the influence of a kind of "hormonal explosion". Of course, the changing hormonal state also affects the nervous system.
It is known that a woman giving birth has a high level of oxytocin. Oxytocin is an anti-stress hormone. Oxytocin levels rise from stroking the skin, during sexual activity, during childbirth and during the period of breastfeeding. Oxytocin is the hormone of well-being. If a person is doing well and calmly, the level of oxytocin in his blood is higher. Usually a nursing mother is calm and relaxed. This rather indicates the “correct” course of the postpartum process than any negative changes in the body of the woman who has given birth.
The hormone prolactin is also involved in the regulation of lactation. Prolactin is responsible for the production of milk, of course, its level in the body increases during lactation. The analgesic effect of prolactin is known, which helps to reduce the sensitivity of a nursing mother to external stimuli.
Psychologists have an interesting term - "postpartum blues" This is a certain adaptive state of the psyche, adapting to the changing circumstances of a person.
According to foreign studies, the likelihood of blues or even postpartum depression is higher in those mothers who experience problems with breastfeeding or do not breastfeed at all. If a woman experiences pain while feeding, her psychological state is reasonably difficult.
Therefore, it is so important for problems and difficulties to seek help and support from experienced mothers and lactation specialists as soon as possible.
Study
In 2012, Belarusian psychologist and lactation consultant Olga Babayan studied the emotional state of a breastfeeding woman and the degree of well-being of her breastfeeding. A close connection was found. The higher a woman's subjective assessment of her emotional state (mood), the closer she is to the well-being of breastfeeding, and vice versa, the more successful breastfeeding, the higher the woman's subjective assessment of her emotional state.
Based on the assumption that successful breastfeeding and a woman's emotional state are closely related, if a mother is helped to improve lactation, she will be able to enjoy breastfeeding and her emotional state, her mood will be predominantly positive. And this, in turn, will contribute to the harmonious formation and development of a full-fledged personality of the child.
Since we know that breastfeeding is natural, when problems arise and a natural decrease in mood, guilt can also arise. Breastfeeding consultants will come to the rescue, able to help with the establishment of feeding. There are alternative ways to breastfeeding - feeding with expressed milk, feeding with donor milk. Probably, this will be the solution of the current moment, and after some time the situation will improve.
Non-drug treatment of psychological problems recommended by foreign breastfeeding experts is as follows:
- Omega-3 fatty acids;
- Regular exercise;
- Physiotherapy;
- Herbs separately and in collections (an ambiguous way, since not all medicinal herbs are acceptable to use when breastfeeding).
Polina Lykova
Doctor, lactation consultant, member of AKEV
WHO/UNICEF Lecturer on Breastfeeding
You need to be aware that the unrest of a pregnant woman leads to dangerous changes in her body, affecting the physical condition of the unborn child. Unwanted children are those whom they decided to give birth, but did not want to learn how to love.
Developing, the baby adequately perceives the features of his mother's influence on him, he hears how the heart beats, how the blood in the vessels rustles. Feels muscle tension, how breathing, voice change. And he learns to analyze the different state of his mother at one time or another, in this or that situation.
Example: a woman is watching a comedy - she is in a good mood, endorphins (pleasure hormones) are produced, which enter the child's brain with the bloodstream, hear music and mother's laughter. The woman's body relaxed, she breathes evenly. Enough oxygen enters the bloodstream for both her and the baby. The woman touches her stomach, gently stroking. The child fixes - music, laughter, oxygen. Mom's touch is good.
Another example: a woman is nervous, arguing with her husband, her body is tense, there is not enough oxygen, because it is absorbed by screaming. The hormonal system produces the hormone adrenaline and other stress hormones. The child develops hypoxia (lack of oxygen), she hears a cry, experiences tension, hears her father's voice. Fixes - when I hear this voice, I feel bad.
Consider a situation where a woman does not want a child. Psychologically, this child will be deprived. She develops without support, without communication, constantly forced to receive stress hormones and then learns to respond to them. Since everything in a person is interconnected, unresolved psychological problems, psychological immaturity, unpreparedness affect the work of the reproductive organs and the entire hormonal system of a woman. Ultimately, there is a threat of miscarriage, and here's why.
Under stress due to a woman's unwillingness to bear a child, the cerebral cortex first of all reacts to her. This is followed by the response of the hypothalamic-pituitary system. The stress hormone, which is produced by the endocrine glands, enters the bloodstream. In response to the level of the hormone in the blood, muscles react, which provoke the production of adrenaline. After that, the level of prolactin rises, and progesterone decreases - there is a threat due to the reaction of the muscles of the uterus. The more and the longer the increased tone of the uterus persists, the more dangerous it is for the child.
Therefore, it should be remembered that mother and child influence each other. Physical state, emotions, mood they divide into two. The child receives his own experience almost from the first days of existence. The way a woman prepares for the birth of a baby, how she perceives the changes that occur to her and in her, how she treats the child - all this has a reflection on the future.