When Breastfeeding Sucks: What you need to know about nursing aversion and agitation

Description

Many mothers and those who support them do not know that they can experience negative emotions associated with breastfeeding. In modern society breastfeeding is often used - problematically - to exemplify myths about motherhood and maternal love, and is bound up with ideas of what makes a 'good mother'. In this context nursing aversion and agitation - intense, distressing feelings that are experienced by the mother during breastfeeding - can be both unexpected and hugely upsetting, particularly when women may have already overcome significant challenges in order to breastfeed. In When Breastfeeding Sucks Zainab Yate examines what we know about this poorly understood aspect of infant feeding, in a carefully researched discussion that will be valuable for individual mothers who may be suffering, and the breastfeeding supporters who work to support them.

Zainab Yate BSc, MSc (Medical Ethics & Law, Imperial College London) is an independent researcher and campaigner, and published the first study looking at breastfeeding/nursing aversion and agitation in 2017. She has been a breastfeeding peer supporter with the NHS for a number of years and is author of the only resource site for mothers and healthcare practitioners on aversion (www.breastfeedingaversion.com), where she researches and writes about aversion and why it arises. She has helped thousands of women when breastfeeding triggers negative emotions through her free structured support course and peer to peer support group online. Her working background is in public health and commissioning within the NHS and she is currently vice-chair and named qualitative lead of the North London Research Ethics Committee, with the Health Research Authority in the UK (HRA). She is also a member of the Kings College London Research Ethics, Governance Policy & Integrity Committee (KCL). In both roles she is a breastfeeding advocate and infant feeding research ethics expert for the committees.

"Zainab has collated all the information - the biological and psychological and anthropological - together with stories, hints & tips and important resources, and it's a masterpiece! In this often strangely-divided world of infant feeding, she's the one brave enough to talk about how much it can SUCK, then gives tools to cope and overcome this without being told to simply stop! This is an absolute must-read for anyone in the peripartum industry to understand the true emotional complexities of breastfeeding, and to know how to provide better support. And for those going through it [to know] that they are not alone." -- Johanna Sargeant, IBCLC, Milk and Motherhood "Without denying breastfeeding's importance, this original book explores the reality that, for some women, it can be hard. An important book that will help not only mothers, but also those who care for them." -- Maureen Minchin, author of Milk Matters: Infant Feeding and Immune Disorder "Zainab's book brings insight and nuance to this neglected area of the breastfeeding conversation." -- Milli Hill, author of The Positive Birth Book and Give Birth Like a Feminist