Why Breastfeeding can Cause Neck Pain?

In today’s video, breastfeeding is specified to cause neck pain if with poor posture. One of the most fulfilling activities a mother can experience is cradling a baby in her arms. Looking at the tiny version of her wrapped in swaddling clothes, and sleeping calmly with that little innocent face.

Breastfeeding poses health benefits for both the mother and the child. Aside from the natural nourishment, the mother’s milk can provide the baby, the breastfeeding process, in turn, soothes and calms the mother, abstaining her from post-partum depressions and complications.

Though breastfeeding had its benefits, the process had its perks also that when left unattended will lead to more severe threats. Simply put, hunch positions when breastfeeding overloads, the tension on the upper back neck. This is not only applicable during breastfeeding but also when moms change diapers, wash bottles, and even sweep floors. These are tasks which are all associated with caretaking functions of raising and rearing a child.

The head-forward, looking-down, and hunched position that mothers practice during breastfeeding strains the muscle tissues behind the neck. Imagine what happens to the tissue connecting your upper shoulders and the base of your head that enables us to look from side to side, when we bend our head forward. It is stretched!

Prolonged positions like that will cause so much strain on the tissue causing aggravation and tension, and eventually pain, especially if the tissue is already tights from being strained continuously. It is not suggested that moms should continue to breastfeed and just look at the distance and hope for the best, no!

Here are two significant suggestions that you should try to avoid neck and back pain when breastfeeding.

First is, if you feel that you have a good latch and things are going okay, don’t forget that there’s a distance out there. Look in the distance from time to time, and not at the baby all the time, not go on a hunch position. Be a little bit conscious about the head-forward position and how that can be causing pain.

Second is, what happens when you are not breastfeeding? Are you still doing the head-forward position without being aware of it?

What situations can we think about having the head in a lighter upward position instead of in the hunched position? Working with several moms who are experiencing chronic neck pain, and we have somehow dealt with releasing the tensions around the neck are.

But the issue here is how do you stop the tension from coming back?

Correcting these situations try to think about, maybe you are looking down a little bit more, or you are always leaning your head forward.

An essential piece of advice to avoid back and neck pain.

We believe you don’t have to be in pain, especially in through the neck knowing that you went through so much. We know that you are already sleep-deprived and you are already a milk machine. There’s a lot of demand from you right now, and it doesn’t help if you got this pain regularly.

The first step is to start to be aware of what’s going around your neck, do exercises, and please check visionbodymind.com for additional resources that can help you. In particular, it comes with a free five-day posture plan that helps you build awareness of yourself. I know trying to focus on feeding your baby makes it impossible for you to be aware of what’s happening with your body as a whole.

What happens with the five-day posture challenge is these are five concise kinds of mini-meditations that are less than five minutes. We hope that you find it as a way to fight stress and develop proper posture as well.

Moreover, it highlights what the poor posture habits you are doing are and how you can correct it. Visit visionbodymind.com to learn more.