Breastfeeding / Nursing Aversion And Motherhood Zainab Yate

In this episode Abby interviews me about my research, book, and campaigning to raise awareness about the phenomenon of aversion and agitation.

Genny Stiller and I share our thoughts and research findings from our new paper published in Clinical Lactation.

In part one of this contemporary and important topic I chat with Genny Stiller from the Lactation Spectrum about her experiences and insights into those who are autistic or neurodivergent when breastfeeding and we discuss how aversion can manifest due to struggling with these sensory and processing challenges. Part 2 is coming up and this is where we share our research from our paper recently published in Clinical Lactation.

Many of you will know Kate from her public breastfeeding/feminism/sling wearing/gentle parenting posts on social media. I am a huge fan. And when I saw that she tandem fed, I wondered if she ever experienced aversion. Turns out, she did! This episode is more of a discussion about personal experiences of aversion, from tandem feeding to triggers from being a survivor of sexual abuse. We talk about guilt, hope, misinformation and what tips and tricks helped with aversion.

So we previously covered all the steps to understand the phenomenon and how prevention is key to stopping it escalate. In this episode I cover Hydration and nutrition, Active redirection and distraction, Lifestyle and sleep, Intervention like mindfulness and minimalism, counselling and cessation of breastfeeding (stopping breastfeeding)

I cover the first part of the mnemonic acronym I created as part of a tool to alleviate aversion: BROMPHALICC 1. Breastfeeding aversion triggers 2. Reactionary behaviours 3. Ovulation and Menstruation 4. Prevention 5. Hydration and nutrition next up.