Breastfeeding Using EFT

Breastfeeding can be a wonderful, easy time for some mothers, with Baby latching on right away and nursing like a champ, with no problems from the start. But more often, learning to breastfeed can be full of emotional frustrations, challenges and stress. So how can you overcome the emotional obstacles, the challenges, and beat the stress? Your baby is counting on you to succeed at breastfeeding. That’s where Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) comes in.

Emotional Freedom Technique Defined

So what is EFT? I’ll quote the pioneer in EFT, Gary Craig: “Emotional Freedom Techniques…is an emotional, needle free version of acupuncture that is based on new discoveries regarding the connection between your body’s subtle energies, your emotions, and your health. EFT has been reported successful in thousands of cases covering a huge range of emotional, health and performance issues. It often works where nothing else will.”

EFT combines physically and gently tapping on specific points of the body and using affirmations to break up old patterns of stress reactions that allows new positive, stress-free experiences to take place. The stressors can be primarily physical or emotional in nature, but EFT can address them both, quickly and effectively. Moms can use EFT on themselves, or they can use it on their babies.

Practical Applications of EFT to Breastfeeding

Here’s an example of a situation where EFT can help with breastfeeding: A baby who has learned to suck on their tongue in the womb can result in the baby failing latch onto the breast correctly, causing the mother pain and frustrating the baby, because the milk won’t be expressed properly into the mouth with the tongue off the breast and blocking the nipple. This is a good opportunity to start the gentle tapping (on baby or mother) and affirmations to distract the fussy baby and break the connection to stress and failure. It can calm them down, so they can re-latch properly and get back to nursing again.

Another situation where EFT might help moms is when Baby is frustrated or miserable at the breast and refuses to nurse. I know first hand how upset a mother can get when her baby arches back away from the breast and screams. It feels like rejection. This emotional reaction in the mother can create even more stress in the child, setting up a feedback loop of anxiety that hinders successful breastfeeding. By using EFT, you can change the dynamic quickly and get back to peaceful nursing again.

Beyond Breastfeeding With EFT

Of course there are lots of other good uses for EFT besides breastfeeding. People have used EFT to deal with eating disorders, weight loss, fears and phobias, pain management, depression, and serious illnesses like addictions, allergies, asthma, high blood pressure, diabetes and headaches. EFT has also been used to deal with children’s issues like abuse, ADD-ADHD, and dyslexia. Another remarkable use of EFT has been to help increase personal wealth and improve or eliminate financial problems. So you can see, learning to use EFT can have benefits well beyond dealing with one particular problem related to breastfeeding.

How to Learn EFT

Gary Craig, the pioneering founder of Emotional Freedom Technique, offers a free introductory manual to learn the basics of EFT, so you can start using it today at no cost. While it is only the basics, and you will need to figure out how to apply the technique to your unique situation, it’s a great place to start, especially if you are unable to afford a consultation with a professional EFT therapist. You can get Gary’s free introductory EFT manual here.

For those who would rather have a more extensive course, one where someone actually guides you through the process of using EFT to solve real problems, one of the best selling courses is produced by Brad Yates and Joe Vitale. It’s called Money Beyond Belief, and as the title of the course suggests, it’s about using EFT to improve your financial future. But don’t let the title fool you. Even if you are not interested in using EFT to improve your financial future, what Brad and Joe teach regarding EFT can be used to deal with virtually any problem EFT can benefit. You can get their course here.

Finally, you can always find and contact an EFT practitioner in your area. Consultation fees will vary, so I cannot give you an accurate estimate of what it will cost you to learn EFT from a therapist, or receive guided EFT sessions. However, it is safe to say that hiring an EFT practitioner will cost more than Gary Craig’s free EFT manual or the best selling EFT home study course I mentioned above.

Don’t Forget Feedback!

Please let me know if you decide to give EFT a try, even if you don’t end up using it to deal with a breastfeeding issue. And please leave me a comment below to let me know what you think of this blog post. Your comments are important to me.