Track your baby's development, week by week



Is it true that stress can cause breast milk to dry up?

Stress can certainly slow the flow. But as long as a mother continues to nurse her baby, stress isn't likely to stop her milk production. Plus, research has found that breastfeeding reduces negative moods and stress – so nursing your baby can actually help you get through a stressful time.

Oxytocin, a hormone released into your bloodstream when you nurse, can have a calming effect. This means that a mom who's stressed and breastfeeds her baby is likely to become more relaxed.

When she relaxes, her milk start to flow again. And since it's the baby's sucking that stimulates milk production, a mother who keeps nursing is likely to keep producing milk.

Stress could create a bit of a catch-22, however. Some studies show that physical and mental stress can slow the release of oxytocin into the bloodstream of a breastfeeding mother. If you're producing less milk because oxytocin is in short supply, relaxation is key.

Researchers at the University of New Mexico found that listening to tapes of guided relaxation and imagery techniques helped moms whose babies were in intensive care to produce more milk.

Among the mothers with the sickest babies, milk production in those who listened to the tapes was more than double that of moms who didn't listen to the tapes. And the more times a mom listened to a tape, the more milk she produced.


Featured video
You might also like