Breastfeeding shown to reduce chronic pain from C-section operation
Women who breastfeed after a caesarean section (C-section) could decrease the pain experienced after the operation, according to new studies.
Around a quarter of all births in Britain, US and Canada, are carried out by C-section, which results in chronic pain after the procedure, that lasts for more than three months, affecting around one in five mothers.
Although it is well known that breast milk is the most essential and suitable nutrition for infants in early life, little has been known about the potential effect of breastfeeding on a mother’s experience of chronic pain after a C-section.
To investigate further, the new study, carried out by a team from Hospital Universitario Nuestra Señora de Valme in Sevilla, Spain, studied 185 mothers who underwent a C-section at the hospital between January 2015 and December 2016.
The researchers interviewed the mothers about their breastfeeding habits and the level of chronic pain at the surgical site in the first 24 and 72 hours after C-section, and again four months later.
Factors of chronic pain
The team also looked at other factors that could affect chronic pain, including surgical technique, pain in the first 24-72 hours, maternal education and occupation, and anxiety during breastfeeding.
The results showed that almost all of the mothers (87%) breastfed their babies, with 58% reporting that they breastfed for two months or longer.
From those who breastfed for at least two months, about eight percent still experienced chronic pain in the surgical site four months post-op, compared to 23% of those who breastfed for two months or less.
The differences stayed the same even after the team had taken into account the mother’s age.
The team also found that mothers with a university education were less likely to experience continual pain, in comparison to those with a lower level of education.
Post c-section and anxiety
Other discoveries included 54 percent of the mothers who reported suffering from anxiety after breastfeeding, with the team’s current research showing that anxiety is linked with chronic post-caesarean pain in a statistically significant way.
The data was presented last weekend at the Euro-anaethesia Congress in Geneva, Switzerland.