Breast milk is the best food we can give exclusively to our baby during its first months of life, and that continues to provide benefits throughout the time it receives. But as in many life experiences, each woman lives her breastfeeding differently. For some it is easy, for others not so much.
For this reason, and for the difficulties and challenges that he has had to face when working outside the home, actress Hilary Duff shares in a very honest post some challenges about breastfeeding, speaking in particular about the moment of weaning and recognizing the efforts of all mothers.
Since becoming a mother for the second time, Hilary Duff has used to share with her followers on social networks a bit of her mother's life and the challenges she has had to face as a mother of two, as well as some special moments she has had.
In Babies and more, Hilary Duff recreates the viral photography of Rachel McAdams, giving us a more "real" version of breastfeedingRecently, the actress stopped breastfeeding her daughter, so she shared a reflection in which she not only talks about breastfeeding in general, but about the challenges of continuing it I feel working mother, as well as the difficult decision to wean his daughter Banks, six months old.
Accompanied by a photograph in which he appears breastfeeding, the actress begins telling that last week was her last week breastfeeding Banks, and that initially, she had set a goal to do so at least until her daughter turned six months, and when the date arrived, decide if she would continue to do so.
THIS ONES FOR THE LADIES Just a few thoughts that I wanted to share on Breast-feeding. Last week was my last week nursing Banks (my six month old) I am a working mom of two. My goal was to get my little girl to six months and then decide if I (and her of course) wanted to keep going. Let me tell you. Pumping at work sucks. I had zero down time and am usually pumping in a hair and make up trailer while four hands work to get me ready for the next scene with lots of other people around. Even if I had the luxury to be in my own room, its not even considered a break because you have to sit upright for the milk to flow into the bottles Plus you are having your damn nipples tugged at by an aggressive machine that makes an annoying sound, that echoes through your head day and night (I swear that machine and I had many conversations at midnight and 3 am) Ttttthen having to find someplace to sterilize bottles and keep your milk cold (ok Im done with that rant lol) Anyway, I didnt know this because with Luca I didnt work until he was about nine months old, so I didnt pump very often. Your milk supply drastically drops when you stop feeding as often and lose the actual contact and connection with your baby (). So I was eating all the feunugreek goats butt blessed thistle fennel cookiesdropsshakespills I could get my hands on It was maddening. (Does fenugreek make anyone else smell like maple syrup and rubber gloves… not chill) With all of this complaining, I want to say I enjoyed (almost) every moment of feeding my daughter. Felt so lucky to be so close to her and give her that start. I know many women are not able to and for that I am sympathetic and very grateful that I could. For six wonderful months. But I needed a break. I was going to break. With the stress of a dropping milk supply and a baby that was getting bored or not caring about nursing when I was available to. I was sad and frustrated and feeling like a failure all of the time. When really Im a bad ass rock star. Moms get high on feeling like superwoman… because we are Doing too much, because we can KEEP READING in the comments below
"Let me tell you something. Extracting milk is a horrible thing", The actress begins to say about the effort to continue breastfeeding when working away from home, as well as to talk about how complicated this whole process is, because in his case, all the time he was accompanied by his makeup team and the few moments he had of rest he used them to express milk.
She realize that I didn't know how difficult it could be, because with her first child it was different, since at that time she was out of work during the first nine months after her birth, so she had no need to express milk so often, nor had problems with her milk production, because it gave breastfeeding on demand.
Instead, now that she only breastfed when she was with her daughter after work and she drank milk when she could during her work schedule, he noticed how this affected his breastfeeding: "Your milk production drops dramatically when you stop feeding your baby so often and even lose a lot of that contact you had with him. So I started researching and eating everything I found that could help me produce more milk. I was going crazy!"
With the passage of time and having increasing difficulties in maintaining her milk production, the actress began to feel very depressed and frustrated: "I mean I enjoyed almost every moment breastfeeding my daughter. I feel fortunate to have been close to her and to have given her this good start"says the actress."But I needed a break. I was about to break down from the stress of my milk production downturn and a baby who was too bored or distracted to breastfeed when I had a chance.".
And then, share something with which many mothers identified: the pressure we put on ourselves and how hard we can be when for some reason we do not meet the goals we set or things do not go as planned.
"I was sad and frustrated and felt like a failure all the time, when in reality I am a rock star. Moms feel good when we feel like a superwoman, and we are! We do a lot because we can do it. But sometimes we get stuck in that feeling that we can do more"says the actress, also recognizing once again the work of all mothers.
In Babies and more The great message of actress Hilary Duff, recognizing and applauding the daily work of all mothers "I wanted to share all this because deciding to wean was very emotional and very difficult. I thought about it all day, was constantly in my head, analyzing the pros and cons, and half of the time, they didn't even make sense. At that point, it was about me and not about my daughter. I cried many times and felt very depressed as I weaned Banks", bill. "I was missing a very special moment with my daughter, but I really missed feeling good".
Now, the actress shares that she feels very different from those last months in what was increasingly difficult to continue breastfeeding, admitting that she feels relieved and even a little ridiculous for having stressed so much and being so hard on herself before weaning her daughter.
"Banks is thriving and even now I have more time with her and her dad also has the opportunity to feed her more often. And I have a little more rest. So it doesn't matter if you're pregnant or you're already in postpartum or you're a very busy mom: you're a superhero for everything you do every day", concludes the actress, before saying that He hopes that his experience will help other mothers who are having difficulties with breastfeeding.
In Babies and more The distressing photo of a mother frustrated by her difficult experience with breastfeedingHilary's post has more than 1,096,000 likes and thousands of comments thanking him for his sincerity and talking about a topic that is not always seen very often: weaning and how complicated it can be emotionally to make that decision.
Just yesterday we shared another publication in a similar line, this time of the Youtuber Verdeliss, in which he also spoke about the difficulties of breastfeeding, which are not always mentioned, but that they are important to share so that other mothers do not feel alone or suffer in silence.
And returning to the publication of Hilary Duff: it is true that breastfeeding is the best for the baby and that we must procure it as long as possible. But if this is becoming a negative or overwhelming experience, that affects us emotionally, we should not feel guilt or feel that we are less mother for deciding to choose weaning.
