Inability to breastfeed doesn’t mean the end of the world! MomStars share why…

Knowledge Partner:  

The entire world knows ‘Breast is Best’ but no one tells a new mother about how hard or easy is it to breastfeed a new born. At BabyChakra, every 2 out of 3 queries from new mothers are on Breastfeeding – issues like insufficient supply, unable to latch right, not if baby is feeding enough, and a host of other reasons which give mothers a lot of grief! Who, in this universe, after all will not want to feed her own baby?

As a society, what’s important to do is to respect the mother’s decisions and her instincts and not make her succumb to pressure. Yes, there are many who go through this! We asked the BabyChakra MomStars how their Breastfeeding Journey was and a sea of emotions and views came up.

“Breastfeeding has been a fantastic journey for me. Difficult but great! Never gave formula, never fed with bottle, directly handed over milk in glass when my son turned 1. He is 22 months old and still breastfeeding. Plan to breastfeed for some more time”, says an optimistic MomStar Vidisha. 
MomStar Neha Chopra, vocal and passionate about babywearing and breastfeeding says, “I had a C-section and knew that initial few hours my baby would be fed formula, but as soon as I was reeled in my room, I demanded for my baby and wanted to breastfeed. It was painful and tough and many times the nurse did have to supplement with formula. When we were discharged, we got formula as a complimentary gift and I hated the look of it, I was always competing with that tin box and it kept me motivated to trust my body and continue breastfeeding. Many opinions, divergent views and contradicting suggestions later, I found solace in myself by simply keeping calm and trusting my intuition. Having said that, apart from the initial bottle and nipple purchase, the baby has been on the boob! And still continues to suckle peacefully at 3 years. The major sources of strength were oddly the google search engine and the La Leche League meet up I attended in Mumbai with Effath Yasmin and Mommy support groups. It does take a village to support and make a mother trust her body and biology!”

However, it’s clearly not a bed of roses for everyone. A realistic Mom, Archana Sharma adds, “I delivered twins, preterm, with low birth weight at 32 weeks so they were in NICU for quite some time and later never latched. They were on exclusive breastfeed and Formula feed since day one till 6 months and post that only formula feed. No personal offence to anyone but yes all moms want to breastfeed but for some it never does happen so somehow it aches wen people look down upon Formula feed and over rate direct breastfeeding. To each, his own!”

More than the inability to breastfeed, the stress is what kills Moms nearly. MomStar Sneha Singh shared, “Normal delivery, all was well, but my baby wasn’t able to latch on and hence milk supply wasn’t stimulated well, consulted lactation expert and pediatrician too but nothing helped. Tried electric expression of milk and fed him whatever little I could but supply was affected because baby coudn’t latch on. Started with Nan pro and continued till he turned 8 months – very very stressful journey indeed!”

What is common in most stories, is the struggle for atleast one week or one month of the baby’s life and what comes out of it basically determines the course ahead. In today’s times, lactation experts and birthing experts can offer a lot of help in initiating the breastfeeding process the right way.

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