Why I Don’t Care If I Breastfeed My Baby

In just a few short weeks (about 8 to be exact) our baby girl will be making her debut. With so much to do and so much on my mind, saying I am an emotional basket case is an understatement. But one thing is for certain, I won’t be worrying about HOW I plan to feed my baby because I’ve decided I Don’t Care If I Breastfeed My Baby.

Why I Don’t Care If I Breastfeed My Baby

Yup, I said it.

I am sure many of you reading this are rolling your eyes at that statement and are prepared to slap a book in front of my face regarding the benefits of breastfeeding but let me save you some time…

You’re right!

Breastfeeding is a beautiful and natural thing. It’s convenient, cost-effective, and a simple way to feed your baby. Some would even say it’s better for your baby.

But here’s the thing…

I have to disagree.

You see, as women we are pressured to believe that breastfeeding is the ONLY way to go when it comes to feeding your baby. From the moment we give birth, lactation flyers are shoved into our face and we have a lactation consultant coming into our room every day until we leave to push us to breastfeed.

Look, I am not saying that is a bad thing. I am a complete advocate for breastfeeding – 100%. I believe it the benefits so much in fact, that when my oldest son was born at 32 weeks’ gestation due to severe preeclampsia, I had another mother donate her breastmilk to him.

That brings me to my point – women are often lead to believe that breastfeeding is the best and only way to feed their baby and that is the issue with this.

Coming from someone who has struggled just keeping my body pregnant long enough to have healthy babies, I can tell you the stress and pressure that comes from breastfeeding is NOT worth it. Especially if you truly cannot produce milk or enough milk to feed your baby in the first place.

With my first son, my body was in too much shock to ever produce milk no matter how hard I had tried.

With my second pregnancy, my son was able to make it to 36 weeks’ gestation.  At that time, I still struggled with producing milk. I was placed on a medication called Domperidone which was found to help increase prolactin that increases milk supply. I was on that medication for the full 10 months I was able to breastfeed.

It was a HUGE mistake.

I am a firm believer that medication has now caused many of the health issues I have today. I was so determined to breastfeed my son that I am now suffering from the complications of the drug that helped me feed my baby.

*Note: Domperidone was pulled from the market in 2014 (the same year I used it) and was causing a high risk of serious abnormal heart rhythms or sudden death from cardiac arrest. It is also now illegal to distribute in the US. (source)

My point is, it shouldn’t matter how we chose to feed our babies. Now days, formula is a great option for babies and is something that moms hundreds of years ago didn’t have the luxury of.

We should be grateful for that – I am.

For the moms out there that can’t breastfeed for whatever reason, know you are not alone. I stand by your decisions.

Forget all the pressure from various sources surrounding breastfeeding. You are doing a great job. You are enough and sometimes we just need a little reminder of that.

And if you are one of the moms that can breastfeed – I applaud you. Keep at it because you are a total rock star and what you do is something many of us envy and wish we could do.

As women we should be building each other up instead of criticizing and tearing each other down especially when it comes to topics like this. We should show love and compassion always and should be kind to one another.

I made a decision early on in this pregnancy that I Don’t Care If I Breastfeed My Baby.

I care that she is fed.

I care that I am healthy enough to care for her.

I care that I am able to function like a normal human being without having to shove medication down my throat to just feed her.

Yes, if I am able to, I plan to breastfeed but I won’t kill myself over doing it.

Everything else just doesn’t matter because at the end of the day, breast isn’t best, fed is best.