Mother of three, Elaina Bellis, has revealed her struggles with breastfeeding on Instagram and her message is getting attention.
Almost 6,000 people have shared her photo which shows Elaina feeding her twin girls Quincy and Rowe.
“I tried everything in my power to build a supply for my girls,” she said.
“Pumping, lactation consultants, mothers milk tea/vitamins, formula wired to my nipples, up all hours of the night and having emotional breakdowns not understanding why my body couldn’t build up any milk over the last month.
“Due to the way my birth went and excess of fluids in my body and trauma, my breasts aren’t able to supply even enough milk for one baby,” she said.
Her struggles come at a time where health campaigners have successfully delivered the benefits of breastfeeding into the mainstream.
When I was pregnant, I was given a wealth of information that encouraged breastfeeding and explained that it was the best nutrition for my newborn.
I thought it was the obvious easy option – but I struggled and so did Elaina.
“I… feel like people don’t talk about how hard breastfeeding can be and if you can BF you’re incredibly lucky,” she said.
“I pump all day to be able to provide my girls with one ounce of my milk, and I’ve accepted that’s the best I can do. All I can give them is my love and that’s most important.”
Elaina isn’t alone, plenty of women struggle with breastfeeding – but so many of us think it’s going to be easy.
My mother found it easy, my grandmother found it easy, some of my friends found it easy so it was quite a shock when I found it a struggle.
When my son was a month old, I had to wear the shame of giving-up on pure breastfeeding and I introduced mixed feeding – and that was only one bottle a day. I felt guilty that I couldn’t provide the best thing for my baby.
Around seven months later my baby rejected breastfeeding anyway. After all my struggles I had finally gotten some confidence and then he didn’t want it.
Elaina, with the pressure of two babies seems to have had the same shock.
“I never thought I would have problems with breastfeeding,” she said.
“All I can do is give them my love and that’s the most important.”
Watch The Motherish team confess their first thoughts upon meeting their baby.
Top Comments
Show me the mother that says, "f..k this, I've got better things to do". Nuh-uh, no mother says that. Formula is always the back-up, the last resort when every thing else has been tried and failed, when you're at the end of your tether, the edge of the cliff... And you still feel like a failure, no matter if it's half a feed, or every feed.
Show me the baby that by having formula, was messed up in adulthood.
I can show you loving mothers who formula feed their happy, healthy children, and normal adults from those mothers.
As long as the child is fed, happy, and healthy, what business is it of yours to have an opinion?
I came across some great breastfeeding stories here. It's a bit like w breastfeeding HONY https://m.facebook.com/wehe...