Breastfeeding: Don’t over-think it
Would you describe yourself as a left-brain or right-brain thinker?
Do you like lists, charts, structure and routine? Or are you more free-flowing, creative and flexible?
If your strengths are logic, planning and analytical, you might find learning to breastfeed really challenging!
While the theory of our human brains being neatly split into one hemisphere for logical thinking and the other for creative thinking is yet to be proven, there is no debate that most of us can identify with one side more than the other. And if you are a left-brain thinker, many aspects of pregnancy, birth, breastfeeding and the fourth trimester make you uncomfortable.
Research suggests that left-brain processing is suppressed in pregnancy and the postnatal period, while right-brained thinking is enhanced. This probably has a really important role biologically but can make life harder for the modern western parent.
You might identify as left-brained if you can always answer what time your baby last fed, for how long on each breast and how many feeds your baby has had since breakfast. Those working with breastfeeding mothers can usually spot you the moment you open an app on your phone and give a detailed response to general questions like “How many feeds does you baby have in a day?” or “Is your baby having at least 6-8 wet cloth nappies in 24 hours?”. You can probably tell us how many nappies your baby has used since birth!
The right-brained mother is usually much more vague about her answers. She struggles to record data like feed frequency and length, knows she changes “lots” of wet nappies but has no idea how many that is. If she has an app on her phone it is likely some time since she added any details and probably invested most of her time choosing the best profile photo of her baby and colour theme for the background!
Left-brained thinkers can be overly-rigid about following instructions for positioning and attaching their babies and cling to any times mentioned around feeding. If a midwife in hospital mentioned one day feeds might only take 5-10 minutes each side, this mother is actively anticipating this change. If told to express some milk before putting the baby to the breast when it is full, she needs to know how much milk that is and will focus on not removing too much or too little.
Analytic brains struggle with the lack of predictable routine in their babies lives. They study suggested schedules in books and try to get their own child to follow the example. When their (right-brained) newborn simply goes with the flow, their mothers can experience anxiety around not being able to plan their days around known feed and sleep patterns. Some left-brain thinkers are more comfortable with the idea of pumping their milk to bottle feed as they can measure the amount of milk being consumed. However, the natural fluctuation of milk volume throughout the day can in itself create anxiety, as they need the reassurance of controlled, measurable output.
Over in the home of the right-brained thinker, things are more relaxed. Tuning into her baby’s flexible rhythm comes instinctively and her days are unplanned and free-flowing. By not focusing on the time feeds take or naps last, she is in the moment and more likely to be day-dreaming than counting minutes until she can work on the next task on her to do list.
The fact all this is natural does not make it any easier. There will be times the right-brain mama wishes her days were more productive and orderly while the left-brained mother might wish she could just pick up her baby and go without wondering how an outing will fit into the baby’s feeding cycle.
For women experiencing problems establishing or maintaining breastfeeding, these changes can leave them feeling overwhelmed and not in control of their ability to feed their baby. They might feel more comfortable with prescriptive methods of exactly how to hold their baby at the breast and exactly when they should attach. More intuitive methods like laid-back breastfeeding or baby-led attachment might feel too abstract for them. Allowing the baby to take the lead and for them to take a passive role can be confronting. They expect breastfeeding to be something they do to their baby, not something their baby does with them.
It isn’t only the mothers thinking type which impacts learning in the postnatal period. Right-brained thinkers can feel overwhelmed by instructions given by a left-brained thinking midwife or IBCLC. They struggle with “rules” which don’t feel intuitive and can be distracted as they try to process information while they put it into action. A left-brained thinking mother might feel frustrated when a right-brained thinking practitioner keeps repeatedly assuring them they will know when it feels right or refers to subtle cues from the baby which are not predictable. Everyone can come away from the experience unsure why it didn’t really help.
By understanding the physiological changes to the female brain which occur during and after pregnancy, we can work with our current strengths and recognise these temporary deficits.
Its not just Mum!
Other research casts an interesting perspective on things: infants themselves are right-brain thinkers until around age three. Daniel J Seigel, author of The Whole Brain Child explains:
"In terms of development, very young children are right hemisphere dominant, especially during their first three years. They haven't mastered the ability to use logic and words to express their feelings, and they live their lives completely in the moment which is why they will drop everything to squat down and fully absorb themselves in watching a ladybug crawl along the sidewalk, not caring one bit that they are late for their toddler music class. Logic, responsibilities, and time don't exist for them yet. But when a toddler begins asking "Why?" all the time, you know that the left brain is beginning to really kick in. Why? Because our left brain likes to know the linear cause-effect relationships in the world and to express that logic with language."
This puts left-brained adults in the position of parenting babies and toddlers who lack all their own strengths! A lot of the frustration experienced by parents is simply because our adult brains are expecting these immature infant ones to function in a similar way to our own. It helps to remember the journey to brain maturity takes an average of 25 years. However, what we are learning about brain plasticity shows that our brains are always adapting. By going with these changes around the season of birth and breastfeeding, rather than looking back to what we believed was our “normal”, we are going to be more resilient and able to go with the flow of our children’s own developing mind.
