Survivors Speak: Child Sexual Abuse Impacts Breastfeeding Experiences

Data from retrospective surveys of adult nonclinical populations (the best instruments for ascertaining the prevalence of CSA) suggest that 20-25% of women and 5-15% of men experience childhood contact sexual abuse. While this data is likely still subject to underreporting, its implications are huge: In the United States, 1 in 4 girls and 1 in 7 boys are contact sexually abused by their eighteenth birthday. CSA survivors experience varying types and levels of deleterious health outcomes. Survivors of CSA often experience increased odds of suicidality, post- traumatic stress disorder, depression, anxiety, aggression, phobias, panic disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder, self-injurious behavior, insomnia, substance abuse, sexual dysfunction, proneness to victimization, and social stigmatization. CSA survival often impacts women's experiences of breastfeeding, commonly in ways that lead to clinically suboptimal and personally re-traumatizing breastfeeding. By hearing women's stories about how being a victim/survivor of CSA impacted their experiences with breastfeeding, public health professionals will have richer perspectives on this problem, and the opportunity to identify critical points of intervention for effective breastfeeding promotion to this large population. The presentation will explore prevalence of child sexual abuse, identify common long-term effects, and articulate how these effects often influence breastfeeding experiences. The presenter will utilize feminist theory, public health research, and interviews with CSA survivors with breastfeeding histories to illustrate the ways in which the two are related, and how public health can function to prevent CSA and support survivors throughout the reproductive continuum to both aid in healing and improve breastfeeding practices.