Courtesy of Allison Cooper
I can still recall the very second that I gave up breastfeeding. I was about five weeks postpartum and doing everything I could still to make breastfeeding work. I had a breast reduction when I was 17, making breastfeeding extra difficult for me since my milk ducts were removed during the procedure and it takes time to grow them back. All throughout my whole pregnancy I was confident that I could make breastfeeding work and supplement when I couldn’t, but that truly didn’t prepare me for how I’d feel when the time came for me to introduce the bottle full-time. The pressure on moms to breastfeed and the expectation that you’ll do it, no questions asked, is not unique to me. It’s something all moms feel, no matter if this is their first delivery or their third.
After my baby was born, I sat on the edge of the bed with my husband, exhausted. I was struggling to do the simplest things everyday because I lived in complete fear that stepping outside of my breastfeeding, pumping, and then supplementing routine would somehow throw my milk supply off course and lead me to stop producing. I lived in fear of what would happen if I didn’t drink obscene amounts of water every day, terrified of what would happen if I missed a serving of one of my three lactogenic meals a day. Or even worse — what if I missed a dose of my fenugreek supplement in the morning? Anything that messed with my breastfeeding routine was cast out of my life during those early weeks of new motherhood.
“I’m calling bullsh*t on the fact that we’ve become a society so obsessed with making sure that everyone knows how amazing and perfect breastfeeding is that we’re neglecting the real truth: fed is best.”
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