I don’t mean it confrontational. I was going to explain why and how it is actually really fucking hard but then thought ‘well if this person has ever breastfed they’ll know’.
In a country where everyone breastfeeds the peer support would be incredible. Here, in a pandemic, it’s difficult to access help. (I understand Kate can throw money at it but not everyone can)
It’s also incredibly mentally and emotionally difficult. ‘Is my baby getting enough? Am I providing for my child? Should I top up? Why can’t I do the simplest thing of providing food for my baby when so many people can, does that make me a bad mother?’ It can be mentally crippling.
Physically being tied to your baby every three hours at least. The cracked, bleeding, raw nipples maybe having to see your child throw up your blood and having to keep doing it again a few hours later. Limited options for medications, skin care etc For me, I’ve had to entirely change my diet for my baby, no dairy or soy, it’s totally doable and not ‘hard’ but there is sacrifice.
There are a lot of reasons we in this country don’t have the same support but it makes it all the more hard and that should be appreciated. The ‘in our day it was the only option, you just got on with it’ or ‘in some countries they don’t have the option’ you hear only makes you assume it’s easy and it feel more like it should just happen which I think leads to a lot of the guilt when you can’t. It definitely should be a big deal then women would be more prepared instead of being told ‘oh it’s no big deal’ so feeling incompetent when they struggle and women choosing to bottle feed would be less criticised rather than the assumption they ‘didn’t bother’ which can happen.