There’s a lot of ignorance about how breastfeeding actually works, but the response also reveals how stigmatized formula feeding remains
Photo: PeopleImages/Getty Images In recent weeks, a nationwide baby-formula shortage has left parents scrambling to find enough food to feed their children. More than 40 percent of the usual formula supply is out of stock following supply-chain issues and a recent recall of certain batches of Similac, Alimentum, and EleCare, leading major retailers to ration the amount caregivers can buy.
I cried when our pediatrician told me I would have to stop breastfeeding my one-month-old daughter. Life as a new mother had been full of twists, including postpartum psychosis, a rare but serious mental illness that meant I was in and out of the hospital for the early weeks of my daughter’s life. A psychiatrist recommended I try lithium, and while generally considered the most effective drug for treating bipolar disorder, it can be toxic in the wrong dose and is expressed through breast milk.
But it wasn’t until I was told that I had to stop that I realized just how deep my association between “breastfeeding” and “good mother” went. Feeding my daughter was the most essential thing I did to care for her, and it was hard to escape the feeling that not nursing was a failure. I was ashamed to tell my own mother, who had breastfed me and all of my siblings. The final time I fed my daughter at my breast, she looked so small and peaceful.
The online conversation around breastfeeding, which has spiraled out of control in recent days, reveals that many people are threatened by the idea of a mother who is able to separate from her baby for the workday with relative ease. Even if they don’t say it outright, the assumption that breastfeeding is the superior way to feed a baby is difficult to untangle from the belief that a woman should be home taking care of that child.
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