Before I gave birth to my first child, I've read a lot of books on parenting and infant care. When I gave birth, I refused to give my child infant formula even though I found it very difficult to breastfeed. I spent almost three months trying to breastfeed my daughter, Bella. My baby showed all the signs of being undernourished, but each time I go to the clinic, all they do is simply send me home with a list of things to improve my milk supply. I was told to eat plenty of porridge and take fenugreek tablets. Eventually, I found out that my daughter had tongue-tie, a condition that makes it difficult to suck, but the nurse wouldn't carry out the simple procedure to treat it.
I endured the pains and continued weeping and feeding my baby until my mother sat me down, talked to me and insisted on giving Bella a bottle of infant formula. She said "This is what you don't know, even though the ability to breastfeed is usually diet-related, but you should also know that, mostly it is luck,” she also said. “It is rare to hear a mother say her milk supply improved because she started drinking fennel tea."
After the pep-talk, I realized that the most important thing is providing my baby with the nutrition necessary for healthy growth and development.
The day I finally yield to my mom's advice and gave Bella infant formula, relief was clear in my daughter’s eyes and I could see that I've been forcing her to breastfeed, and she clearly hated it. Then I admitted to myself that I hated it too and I thought to myself, I'm hurting myself and my baby just to please others: for the midwives, for the health visitors and the moms I came across who told me they usually feel bad for babies fed with infant formula.
You may want to read our tips on: Breastfeeding and Formula Feeding at The Same Time
Everybody, including the government, says breast is best. They say all new mothers should breastfeed exclusively for the first six months. Health visitors and midwives are not supposed to support the use of infant formula because it's seen as something that discourages breastfeeding.
In my opinion, demolishing infant formula does not necessarily support breastfeeding mothers, what it does is victimize those who can't breastfeed. My mom even made it known to me that it has being found that infant formula, might in some cases, actually be better than breast milk because some breastfeeding mothers produce so much of the stress hormone cortisol which when fed to the baby makes it anxious. Therefore, we ought to know that many of the claims made about breastfeeding such as "breastfed children usually have higher IQ than formula-fed ones and that they are less likely to develop autism" are mostly myths. Moreover, be it breast or bottle, a woman should be able to choose to feed her baby the best way for her and the baby.
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This story was shared by Mummy Lyn.
I hope new mums would not be too pressured that breastfeeding will be forceful. We also ought not to judge those who use infant formula as well. We all have dfferent stories to tell when it comes to this matter.
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