Breastfeeding and dopamine volatility

It’s really fascinating, did you know that breastfeeding can cause dopamine crashes?

Not everyone who drinks coffee gets a coffee crash, but if you do, you know what I’m talking about. A cup of strong coffee makes more dopamine suddenly more available. Then for the next few hours you are rewarded more by your brain for anything that you do, so you feel more confident and successful at your tasks, you feel better about doing them. Then dopamine reabsorption blocking decreases, and less dopamine becomes available. A coffee crash is exactly that – for those who are sensitive to this decrease in available dopamine, you suddenly feel a “realization” that in fact what you are doing is pointless, and all we are is dust in the wind.

Well, turns out that breastfeeding triggers a similar mechanism – when prolactin increases, less dopamine becomes available.

Breastfeeding and dopamine article