Microbiome
#microbiome, today, eh, @thegfw?
Well, I give you my boobs. Or I gave them to Theo, at least. Five years ago.
I see these women talk about how “fulfilling” and “special” and “beautiful” breastfeeding is. I am not one of them.
We had a difficult time. A lot of women do. We ended up doing six months of breastfeeding— 40% of that was from the boob and formula was the other 60%. And it worked for us. And I refused to ever let myself feel bad about that.
Breastfeeding is not so simple as hooking a baby up to your nipple and just letting it happen— not for a lot of people. And we don’t talk enough about it. We don’t talk enough about how difficult breastfeeding can be, how painful, how boring, how annoying, how heartbreaking it can be. No, now we shame women who cannot or choose not to— loudly or subtlety, with a sidewards glance or simply with another post about how life-affirming a woman’s breastfeeding “journey” has been.
True: breastfeeding a child is extraordinarily good for the development of the #microbiome. But I also just read an article saying that formula-fed babies actually have a greater microbial diversity than breast-fed infants. So, take that, ladies in Today Bread glaring at the woman (aka me) whipping out and putting together a bottle of formula for their hungry child.
We are all just doing what we can.
Also, I came very close to sharing a photo of me, doubling pumping. But didn’t want to scare/scar anyone. 🍈