Do you have a Breastfeeding Aversion Response?
What is Breastfeeding Aversion Response?
Do you have negative feelings (also known as aversion) while breastfeeding, which last for the entire time that your little one is on the breast - and yet you really want to continue to breastfeed that child?
This toe-curling discomfort with breastfeeding is known as the Breastfeeding Aversion Response (or BAR). You're not alone - BAR is surprisingly common, experienced by nearly 10% of breastfeeding women at some time throughout the course of their breastfeeding.
Women describe either a low-level or sometimes intense irritation with the breastfeeding child, experienced in a physical, "icky" way, sometimes with tight or tense, creepy-crawly sensations in the tummy and usually accompanied by a strong impulse to take the child off the breast. These feelings are typically endured when a woman has BAR, rather than acted upon. She knows that if she stopped breastfeeding that child, the aversive response would stop - but she has reasons for not wishing to wean just yet.
BAR is not the same as nipple pain or Dysphoric Milk Ejection Reflex. BAR comes on after many previous unremarkable experiences of breastfeeding that same child, long periods of breastfeeding which were not accompanied by this negative emotion or sensation - and pain or discomfort from nipple and breast tissue drag have been excluded.
Is there a time when you're more likely to experience Breastfeeding Aversion Response?
BAR is most likely to occur when you're pregnant with another child but still breastfeeding, or when you're tandem feeding a baby and an older child, or when you're breastfeeding an older infant.
It's very common to feel some discomfort and aversion when you are breastfeeding an older child and have fallen pregnant, especially in the first trimester when the BAR may be quite acute. The unpleasant sensations appears to be a hormonal response to the pregnancy. Some women take this as a sign to wean. They view the BAR as a biological indication that it is time to make way for the new baby. They might even worry that feeling negatively about the breastfeeding experience could impact negatively upon the older child, who despite our best efforts may pick up some of our physical ambivalence or aversion. They decide it's best to wean and focus on other ways of being very physically close to and affectionate with that child.
But other women read their experience of BAR differently, knowing it will pass, and have reasons to want to continue to breastfeeding the older child through their pregnancy with a new baby. I was one of these women, going on to tandem feed, and I don't regret it. There is no right or wrong - just your unique path through. No-one else can know the many different factors that are influencing your own decision about whether or not it is time to wean your little one when you are experiencing BAR.
For me, the most important thing is that you don't feel under pressure to keep on going with breastfeeding if you are enduring repeatedly intense and negative feelings towards the breastfeeding older child. I find in life that it's important to listen to messages from our body, especially if they are repeated as a pattern over time. If you decide to keep on going, it needs to be your own decision, and not due to certain ideals you might see out there in social media or in your networks about what it is to be a good mother! There are many ways to enjoy a deeply physically connected relationship with your small child, after weaning.
Some women experience an Aversion Response with antenatal expression of colostrum
Anecdotally, some women experience an Aversion Response when attempting to express colostrum antenatally. This is a reason not to persist, as you listen to your body! Also, your aversive bodily response to hand expression when you're pregnant does not in any way predict how you'll feel about your breastfeeding experience once your baby is born. You can find out the research has to say about antenatal expression of colostrum here.
Recommended resources
What does the research say about Breastfeeding Aversion Response?
Do you have Dysphoric Milk Ejection Reflex?
What does the research say about Dysphoric Milk Ejection Reflex?
Selected references
Middleton C, Lee E, McFadden A. Negative emotional experiences of breastfeeding and the milk ejection reflex: a scoping review. International Breastfeeding Journal. 2025;20(13):https://doi.org/10.1186/s13006-13024-00692-13003.
Morns MA, Burns E, McIntyre E, Stell AE. The prevalence of breastfeeding aversion response in Australia: a national cross-sectional survey. Maternal and Child Nutrition. 2023;19:e13536 DOI: 13510.11111/mcn.13536.
Sahin BM. Factors associated with the Breastfeeding Aversion Response. Breastfeeding Medicine. 2025;20(2):118-125.
