New research from the Mother and Child Cohort Study at the Norwegian Institute of Public Health indicates that negative personality traits can impact breastfeeding. Researchers gathered data from about 28,000 women during pregnancy and the post-partum period.  Researchers found that anxiety and intrusive thoughts of worry can lead breastfeeding women to stop breastfeeding or supplement their own breastmilk with infant formula.  Anxious women who also lacked self-confidence in their own breastfeeding ability tended to breastfeed less.  The most common worry among the group of mothers was the fear that the baby was not getting enough nutrients from breastfeeding alone.  Researchers also noted that anxious mothers who had increased stress levels had a very restricted let down reflex or milk ejection reflex.

Finally, it is of importance to note that researchers found that many women who had caesarean sections and/or who were first-time mothers, also had lower rates of breastfeeding and higher rates of infant formula supplementation by six months.