breast milk<\/a>, there NEED [sic] to be an understanding that it is OK to supplement with formula, and that formula is a completely viable option.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nHe sounds like my mother in law. Only he has the sad proof that we need to encourage women to do what they need to do to get through the early days with their sanity, and life, intact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019m not going to argue the merits of the science or the importance of breastfeeding. That\u2019s not what this is about. It\u2019s about understanding that the pressure that \u2018breast is best\u2019 puts on women is what makes many of us feel like we are less than, or failures if we can\u2019t or just don\u2019t want to breastfeed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Breastfeeding made me stressed. It made me feel used and abused and as a human pacifier. I tried cutting out foods, cutting out dairy, and doing whatever I could to make the crying stop. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But nothing worked. I continued to be a failure as a new mom. I didn\u2019t want to quit (though my parents and in-laws encouraged me to) and I didn\u2019t want to fail at doing what was \u2018best\u2019 for my baby\u00a0because I was told over and over again that that breast was best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Breastfeeding kept me from bonding with my baby. It kept me literally attached to a screaming human who hated me and the breast that soothed her; resenting her, resenting my breasts and their ability and inability to make her happy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Is breast best if mom is depressed? Is it best if baby is hungry? Is it best if mom can\u2019t bond with her baby? Is it still best even then?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That Ms. Leung\u2019s husband took to social media to talk about this very topic screams to me, and should to everyone, that pressuring new moms can have dire effects. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Clearly, this was something with which she struggled. As\u00a0Scarlett Ballantyne so eloquently said when news of Leung\u2019s suicide broke late last year, her death should be a wake-up call to us all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Had I not been told \u2018breast is best,\u2019 had I listened to my mother in law telling me on day three that a bottle of formula is okay, had I allowed myself to do what was best FOR ME, perhaps I would have bonded sooner, had a less miserable introduction to motherhood, and would have been a better mother\u2014which actually would have been best for my baby.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Had Ms. Leung not felt pressured similarly, perhaps she\u2019d still be here today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the great words of Dr. Spock, \u201cWhat good mothers and fathers instinctively feel like doing for their babies is usually best after all.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Leslie Kennedy reacts to the moving statement by Kim Chen, whose wife died after suffering from PPD, and urges us not to put unnecessary pressure on mothers to breastfeed. I have been very open about the struggles I had with my colicky daughter, my ability to cope, and my ability to bond. She came out … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":8005,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/babypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/breastfeeding-and-ppd-600x400.jpg","featured_image_src_square":"https:\/\/babypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/breastfeeding-and-ppd-600x600.jpg","author_info":{"display_name":"Carly Link","author_link":"https:\/\/babypost.com\/author\/carlybabypost-com\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/babypost.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8002"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/babypost.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/babypost.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/babypost.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/babypost.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8002"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/babypost.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8002\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12683,"href":"https:\/\/babypost.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8002\/revisions\/12683"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/babypost.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8005"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/babypost.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8002"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/babypost.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8002"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/babypost.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8002"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}