When you decide to stop breastfeeding
It’s story time! This is @lisarebeccalahti , a mom from Sweden who wanted to share her breastfeeding story.
Let’s start with how breastfeeding was for you?
My daughter was born almost three weeks to soon which meant that she was pretty small. So from the very start, the midwife told me that she needed extra formula in order to boost her weight gain. But she didn’t gain any weight and she also got jaundice. This lead to us having to give her extra formula after each breastfeeding session. Because she was so little, she didn’t really latch on to the nipple and she didn’t have the strength, so many times she just fell asleep. After a few weeks it got better, but we still had to give her extra formula because of the weight gain.
What made you stop breastfeeding?
Because of our rough start together it became natural for us to stop fighting it after two months. Trying to breastfeed, just made my daughter angry, sad and frustrated, so everything was easier with a bottle. I felt guilty and stressed over the fact that my daughter wouldn’t gain weight and that I wasn’t able to breastfeed my own baby.. But when I finally decided to give her the bottle instead, I saw how happy she got and she started to gain weight. It was such a relief.
What do you want to say to other moms who are thinking about this?
That there is no right or wrong. Try to look at it from the baby’s perspective, what makes them happy? My midwife told me that if you’re not happy, your baby won’t be happy, and then the rest of the family won’t be happy. That was nice to hear.
Is there anything else you would like to share about your experience?
In the end, the most important thing is that the family is doing well. Don't be hard on yourself and being a great mom isn’t based on your boobs. That is important to remember. As we are trying to normalize breastfeeding, we also need to normalize that it is okay to give formula to your baby as well.
Finally, I want to say to ALL MOMS out there, we are great and we are doing the best we can for our little treasures. GO US! - Thank you for sharing <3