A Tribute to the Mothers Who Breastfeed Their Babies

And why we feel we cannot celebrate this accomplishment

Image by Jordan Whitt on Unsplash

I have always been a “fed is best” type of mother. Motherhood is hard for every woman so we should be encouraging and congratulating each other whenever possible. Nevertheless, especially in some internet communities, a woman celebrating her breastfeeding journey can be misconstrued as being “holier than thou”. When in reality, all she wants to do is express her happiness at succeeding at something that is very tough.

I am writing this article to congratulate the women who were able to breastfeed. When talking to other mothers who have nursed their babies, they have felt that they were not able to vocalize their pride in doing so. This is because they were met with defensive statements from some women who were not able to breastfeed. I have even heard of people saying that any mammal can lactate so we shouldn’t be proud of nursing our babies! We want to celebrate our achievement, and we do not do this to make our counterparts feel inadequate. We breastfeeding mothers think mothers who use formula are amazing but we want to toot our own horn too!

I have many friends and family who formula-fed their infants and they have never made me feel this way. I would sometimes notice a longing to be able to do it, or a grimace at how painful it looked. However…