National Breastfeeding Week
Whichever mama is reading this, I just want you to know that there’s no ‘failing’ with feeding, whichever route you choose to go down. Bottles don’t make you less of a mum, you shouldn’t hide away when breastfeeding your child in public, and each and every one of us has a beautiful (but probably rocky) story to tell.
Never did I imagine that I’d love breastfeeding as much as I did. The closeness, the triumph of finally finding it ‘easy’ and that beautiful feeling of knowing my child depends on me for nourishment, it’s honestly something I’ll be proud of for the rest of my days. My body MADE, GREW, and FED a child – how remarkable?!
The problem is that sometimes people don’t share their struggles. So here is mine (for those who need to read it throughout Breastfeeding Week). After a while, my body stopped making enough milk. Why? I don’t know. Did I try everything on the planet to continue, yes. Did it make me crazy obsessed? yes. Did I struggle to accept that I’d probably have to give Luna formula. 100%. Yes, I admit it. I’d become so obsessed with breastfeeding that I was almost forcing it upon Lu, even when she wasn’t gaining enough weight.
BUT then I did it. I listened to my doctor. I listened to my loved ones. I mixed up the powder, shook it, and the world carried on spinning, nobody got hurt, Lu still loved me, I still loved me.
Saying goodbye to that connection was one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do, and I will forever be proud of my breast journey because I never in a million years expected that I’d see it through. It was testing, it was tough, but above all it was liberating.
But now we’re here, and we’re happy. I’ve boobed, I’ve bottled, and Luna is exactly the same little incredible human.
They say it takes a village to raise a child, but aren’t we all a part of the same village? Don’t we all have the same goals in mind for our kids? Fed babies are the BEST babies, whether they’re fed by the breast or the bottle has no impact on how amazing we, as their mothers, are capable of being.
Hannah x
