I have just come across this post on D-MER.
Thank you Lisa and guest poster.
I am so happy and relieved to find information about this odd yet very real sensation that I have experienced, as well as other women I know. I have had very mild dysphoria and nursed my babies until they were 4 years old.
The feelings I had, especially with my 2nd and 3rd children, happened right before let down. I had feelings of sudden irritability, gloom and despair and self judgement ("I'm such a loser." "I'm not getting anything done." "I'll NEVER get anything done." "I feel so sad.") I found reading, removing myself from lots of activity, finding quiet, sitting in comfortable chairs and snippets of dark dark chocolate to be very helpful. I always had a LARGE (jug) glass of water by my side. I have always associated it with let down, just like the sudden feelings of thirst I would also get. I would take a deep breath and just let the feelings wash over me. And they did. I feel fortunate that my dysphoria was mild and manageable. I believe I had it for about the first 3-4 months of nursing.
My own personal experience with breastfeeding funk and this information will help me serve other women who wrangle with D-MER.
Here is the D-MER website:
http://www.d-mer.org/Home_Page.html
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
Thank you for posting about this little known topic! I'm going to put a link to the D-MER.org site on the list of breastfeeding links on my blog, lactationconsultant.com.
It is so important that women really listen to their bodies and their intuition in dealing with their physical and emotional well-being. Breastfeeding can be a difficult journey in the beginning and this symptom could certainly lead to a mother giving up before she'd like to.
Like the blog!
Plan midwife, you didn't put a link so people can read it. Michelles post on this is on my blog
ok clicked on d mer and it is Michelles story. DOH.
I'm just working too hard.
Lisa,
Maybe I can make the link a bit brighter or something. I am actually a novice computer using silly who needs constant tech support from my lovely 16 year old son. I appreciate your hard work, here and otherwise. :)
Brenda
Post a Comment