When Stress Comes with Your Mother’s Milk - Issue 31: Stress
▻http://nautil.us/issue/31/stress/when-stress-comes-with-your-mothers-milk
A few years ago, when my oldest daughter was still nursing, I went through a panicky phase. I had committed to a run of public-speaking engagements, and I constantly worried that I would flub them. Before each event, I pumped milk for the baby and left her with the sitter, who eventually confided that she dreaded my departures as much as I did. While I was away, she told me, my daughter was irritable and inconsolable. She would cry in the stroller; she would cry when held. Refusing to nap after feeding, she back-arched and bawled. “We’re like quantum particles!” I marveled. My daughter felt how I felt—from across the city. “No,” the sitter insisted, “it’s the milk.” I flashed on all those times I had pumped between nervous preparations, my heart racing. Had I passed my stress on to my daughter (...)