I wanted to write this post about sadness after stopping breastfeeding as I know it’s the time of post I would have wanted to have read when I was a first-time mum. Actually, it’s a post I would have wanted to have read as a second-time mum who four years later forgot about the whole stopping breastfeeding blues. I’ve recently stopped extended breastfeeding with my two year old and these are my thoughts on the subject.
Stopping Breastfeeding
I’ve been breastfeeding for two and a half years now which is around the same amount of time I breastfed my first child too. Extended breastfeeding isn’t something I ever planned on doing but I always said we’d try and feed for as long as both of us were ok with it. With my son it was more of a mutual stopping and with my now two-year-old daughter, it was more me wanting to stop than her.
I’m not going to go too much into the hormones involved after breastfeeding as I touched on this before. Mainly your body is still working things out and you’ll likely feel pretty teary and off balance. What hit me hard was the heightened feelings before my first period after stopping breastfeeding (if that sentence makes any sense!). Annoyingly this week fell into half-term week and not putting two and two together I generally concluded that half-term was awful, I couldn’t parent two children and my husband was driving me insane. I spent the whole week, down and depressed, not being able to muster up much positivity or feeling annoyed to the point I needed to go take deep breaths to calm down.
It wasn’t until I came on that I realised OH! So it was PMS but times like 10?! One of the reasons for feeling sadness after stopping breastfeeding is that you are withdrawing from all the lovely Oxytocin that nursing brings. I honestly felt like I was so down tired and anxious that week that I would agree with that statement. I wish it was something that was spoken about more because I genuinely thought those feelings were normal and started to question my life choices ha! Like am I happy in my relationship? Am I a good mum? Am I comfortable in my job? Then the week afterwards feeling like everything was OK with the world again.
Symptoms from stopping breastfeeding
My skin also flared up pretty bad and I have had more aches than usual, I feel like pregnancy & breastfeeding really sorted my skin out for ages and the hormones since since have made it so bad. Hopefully, this will just be temporary though.
I’ve also been suffering from headaches, extreme tiredness and general ‘meh’ I’ve been super forgetful as well my body was just freaking out. Although I’m feeling generally OK again now I’m not sure how long after stopping my periods and hormones will be this intense for but being prepared for that makes me feel a little better and like I’m not going totally crazy. I feel like no one really talks about the side effect when you stop long term breastfeeding.
If this resonates
Anyway, I wanted to share this just in case anyone else is going through the same thing, and reading this makes them feel less alone or suddenly starts ringing bells for them. If anyone wants to share any stopping breastfeeding tips then please do comment below.
If anyone knows of anything that calms these symptoms down a bit I’m all ears, I’ll share as much as I can find out myself. Isn’t it funny how even if this isn’t your first time at this it can feel so new again? Growing and raising babies can be full on hey!
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For information on breastfeeding, I always find this site helpful