The Unspoken Realities of Breastfeeding

We need more honest stories from moms in the trenches. Here’s mine.

Blissful Earth Mom — Shutterstock

We are told that breastfeeding will be easy, blissful, and intoxicating. After all, it’s natural, right?

For some women, the experience matches the fairy tale. For many others, including yours truly, it most certainly did not.

For me, the pursuit of “liquid gold” for my three children was …messy. Yes, there was bliss, but there was also a steep pricetag, physically, mentally, emotionally, and more.

The current breastfeeding narrative is vastly disconnected from the realities of mothers like me. We expect ourselves — and other mothers — to endure limitless sacrifices for our little ones. To speak negatively about our experience is to complain, and be a bad mother. Even as I write this, I brace myself for judgment, and wonder if I deserve it.

Not me but it could have been. I actually wish I had more photos of me pumping given how much time I spent doing it. Shutterstock.

The breastfeeding fairy tale leads mothers to feel that everyone else is happily nursing while they struggle to latch, reluctantly supplement an inadequate milk supply, and spend inordinate amounts of time awkwardly, uncomfortably hooked up to a pump.