While I am mixed-feeding my baby, I think I'm not precluded from sharing my thoughts on breastfeeding on the occasion of Breastfeeding Awareness Month.
As I've posted here quite a few times, my breastfeeding journey has not been easy. In hindsight, I attributed it to my being a first time mom, to not being prepared (because I did not attend any seminars nor read articles), for naively thinking that breastfeeding would be easy peasy, for not trying hard enough to exclusively breastfeed.
Then I read Patty Laurel's own difficulties with breastfeeding. She's also a first time mom. She also underwent surgery on her breast a month post-partum. She mentioned in Instagram that she had mastitis. So while she did not clearly spell it out in her blog, I think she also had a breast abscess, had incision and drainage surgery, and has decided to end breastfeeding.
Then I thought, here is this very lucky girl, with all the resources in the world (she even consulted a lactation nurse), with the most wonderful support group (her handsome hubby, family and fellow celebrity moms) and she still found breastfeeding difficult. Whereas I could not afford the best breast pump and had the worst support system in the world (one side was pushing me to go full time on formula while one side made me feel that if I didn't breastfeed, I'm the worst mother in the world).
Bottomline is, while breastfeeding is best and beautiful, it is not easy. And to quote Patty: "Instead of being PRO-this and ANTI-that, we should just be PRO-MOM, period." Mommy shaming is mommy shaming, no matter what side you are on.
