09/09/2025
When I completed my qualitative research on women's experiences of breastfeeding with primary low milk supply at UCD (I did an MSc. by research through the School of Nursing, Midwifery and Health Systems), I comissioned my now friend/collaborator Lauren Rebbeck to create a set of images to represent my findings, ie the women's lived experiences of breastfeeding with primary low milk supply. I think the images speak for themselves.
The women who shared their experiences with me described their first few months postpartum as 'a grim period', 'horrendously stressful', 'an awful time' and 'very traumatic'. They described feelings of shame, grief, anger, sadness, lonliness, perceived stigma, overwhelm and confusion. Most of the women experienced anxiety. A couple of them even feared their babies could be taken into custody, with one saying
"In the haze of postpartum emotions and hormones...I was sitting on thr end of the bed holding her thinking 'if I can't take care of her, they are going to take her away from me'".
BUT, they did get through this difficult time and for the most part were able to make peace with having low milk supply and using infant formula. The women talked about how far they had come, how proud they were of themselves, how grateful they were to their partners for the way they supported them and how they would breastfeed again if they had a second baby. The women also talked about the friends and connections they made with other mothers with low milk supply - this kind of peer support was a big part of their healing journey.
One of the women reflected on her experience by saying
"...working on yourself, from those really dark days, that kind of pit that you go in to, and then working yourself out, from really hating yourself and feeling like less of a mother to feeling a little bit empowered and proud of the the fact that my feeling experience wasn't easy."
