Emily's Story - OCD and breastfeeding as a midwife

This week, I’m joined by the lovely Emily, a Norfolk midwife and mother to Effie (8 months). We’re talking about breastfeeding alongside significant perinatal mental health challenges. Emily describes exclusively breastfeeding, co-sleeping safely, and introducing solids carefully due to anxiety, then shares how pregnancy and early postpartum intensified OCD, contamination fears, and intrusive thoughts, alongside existing anxiety, depression, PTSD and PMDD. She recounts a planned home birth complicated by a postpartum haemorrhage, theatre treatment and a blood transfusion, plus early breastfeeding pain despite an apparently good latch, temporary nipple shield use, and support including craniosacral therapy. Emily also experienced antenatal and postpartum DMER, severe oversupply, and an unsettled baby, eventually using block feeding until supply stabilised around 12 weeks. She explains how NHS talking therapies helped her reframe fears, and discusses plans for returning to work as a midwife and aiming for natural-term weaning.

My picture book on how breastfeeding journeys end, The Story of Jessie’s Milkies, is available from Amazon here - The Story of Jessie's Milkies (amzn.eu/d/iI3pQGo). In the UK, you can also buy it fromThe Children’s Bookshop (childrensbookshoplondon.com/product-page/jessi…) in Muswell Hill, London. Other book shops and libraries can source a copy from Ingram Spark (ingramspark.com) publishing.
You can also get 10% off my books on supporting breastfeeding beyond six months and supporting the transition from breastfeeding at the Jessica Kingsley press website, by going to bit.ly/JKPbooks and using the code MMPE10 at checkout.

Follow me on Instagram @emmapickettibclc (instagram.com/emmapickettibclc) or find out more on my website emmapickettbreastfeedingsupport.com
Resources mentioned
lucywebberfeedingsupport.com/workshops

This podcast is presented by Emma Pickett IBCLC (emmapickettbreastfeedingsupport.com), and produced by Emily Crosby Media (emilycrosbymedia.com).