When Breastfeeding Doesn’t Flow — It’s Not Your Fault
Breastfeeding is natural, but it’s not always easy. Painful latch, refusal to feed, exhaustion, emotional overwhelm — they leave many mothers feeling lost, broken, or blamed.
At Nourish & Nurture, we see breastfeeding as a full-body and full-heart experience that involves nervous system balance, emotional safety, and physical alignment — for both baby and mother.
BCST (Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy) offers a gentle, intuitive, and clinically-informed touch that helps unwind the hidden causes behind lactation challenges — so you and your baby can reconnect in peace.
Why Breastfeeding Challenges Aren’t Just About the Latch
Breastfeeding difficulties are often signs of deeper imbalances in the nervous system, cranial bones, fascia, or emotional state of either the mother or baby — or both.
These imbalances may come from:
- Birth interventions (C-section, forceps, vacuum)
- Tongue tie or oral restrictions
- Difficult labor or separation after birth
- High stress, trauma, or postpartum exhaustion
- Overwhelm, grief, or disconnection in the mother
BCST supports the whole dyad — not just the feeding — by allowing the body to return to safety, balance, and trust.
Common Lactation Issues BCST Can Support
For Baby
- Difficulty latching or staying latched
- Shallow latch, nipple slipping, clicking sounds
- Weak suck or poor coordination
- Fussiness at breast or breast aversion
- Excessive gassiness, colic, or reflux
- Torticollis, plagiocephaly, tight jaw or neck
- Feeding fatigue or falling asleep at breast
- Post tongue-tie release integration
For Mother
- Nipple pain or damage despite “good latch”
- Engorgement, blocked ducts, mastitis, or abscess
- Oversupply or undersupply
- Emotional distress or anxiety around feeding
- Trauma from birth, separation, or NICU stay
- Postpartum depression or nervous system dysregulation
- Feelings of guilt, failure, or disconnection
How BCST Works in Lactation Support
- BCST is offered with baby and mother together, often with baby at the breast or in the mother’s arms.
- The practitioner uses light, respectful touch to sense restrictions, trauma imprints, and nervous system dysregulation.
- Through a space of safety and deep listening, tensions resolve, alignment improves, and the nervous system settles — for both.
Sometimes the baby isn’t “not latching” — they’re just overwhelmed, misaligned, or in pain.
Sometimes the mother’s milk isn’t “not coming in” — she’s still holding shock, grief, or pressure.
BCST meets all of this with compassion, stillness, and clinical precision.
When to Seek BCST During Your Lactation Journey
- After a challenging birth or unexpected intervention
- When baby shows signs of oral tension or feeding struggle
- If breastfeeding is physically painful or emotionally draining
- Before or after a tongue tie release
- As part of your postpartum healing and self-care
- When you’re doing “all the right things” — but something still feels off
Frequently Asked Questions
1. I’m doing everything right. Why is breastfeeding still so hard?
Sometimes, the struggle isn’t because you’re doing anything wrong — it’s because your baby is carrying tension they can’t express, or you’re still holding trauma in your body from birth, expectations, or exhaustion.
BCST doesn’t look at feeding challenges as failure. It listens to the story beneath the struggle — the one your body and your baby are still whispering.
When the body feels safe again, feeding can flow again.
2. Can BCST really help with something so physical — like latching or milk supply?
Yes — because what’s physical is also emotional, neurological, and energetic. A baby struggling to latch may be experiencing cranial or jaw tension, nervous system overwhelm, or remnants of birth compression.
Likewise, a mother with low milk supply may be living in a state of fight-or-flight, where her body prioritizes survival over nourishment.
BCST restores balance to the whole system — not by fixing, but by listening to what needs to be released so function can return naturally.
3. My baby cries at the breast. I feel like we’re failing. Can BCST help?
That cry is not failure. It’s communication.
Your baby may be saying: “This doesn’t feel right in my body.” “I’m trying, but something hurts.” “I need help softening into safety.”
BCST offers a sacred space where your baby can express, release, and reorganize — often without words, without force, and without fear.
Mothers often say:
“After BCST, something changed. She didn’t cry. She latched, she drank, she exhaled. And I did too.”
4. Can BCST support me as a mother too, or is it just for the baby?
BCST is for both of you.
You may be carrying:
- The shock of an unexpected birth
- Guilt from not bonding “perfectly”
- Exhaustion from pushing through pain
- The silence of no one asking how you’re really feeling
BCST honors the mother as deeply as the baby. It gives your nervous system a chance to settle, your heart a place to exhale, and your body permission to heal.
Because when you’re held, you can hold your baby more fully.
5. What if I’ve already seen lactation consultants, done tongue tie release, and tried everything?
That means you’re committed, courageous, and seeking healing at the deepest level.
And sometimes, beneath all the clinical protocols, there’s a silent story still waiting to be heard — a tension in the baby’s body from the womb, a moment of separation during birth, a mother’s unspoken fear, or a shared imprint of overwhelm.
BCST is often the missing piece. Not because it adds more…
…but because it makes space for less doing and more being — for the body to remember how to come back to connection.