Many expectant moms have every intention of breastfeeding their baby. However, once they give birth, some find out it’s not as easy as they expected and are crippled with guilt and frustration.
Mom-of-two Ashely Clifford knows how devastating it can be to not be able to breastfeed when she struggled to produce enough milk for her first child, which is why she decided to donate almost 20 pounds worth of breast milk after having a much easier time breastfeeding with her second child.
“He latched just fine, but I wasn’t producing enough for him,” the 26-year-old mom said about her experience nursing her son two years ago. “I tried for about a month, exclusively nursing and pumping, but nothing seemed to help my supply at all. I was on an exhausting schedule with him, taking Fenugreek supplements, nursing every two hours and pumping for 20-plus minutes after each nursing session. I was so stressed out, tired, frustrated and felt helpless.”
Finally, Clifford accepted that she needed to supplement her milk with formula, and was stunned by how much her son improved once he was fed enough. “He was like a new baby,” Clifford said. “I absolutely wanted to nurse him longer, but I had to put what was best for him ahead of what I wanted. I kind of felt like a failure with not being able to provide for him naturally, but seeing him happy and growing made me happy.”
So when Clifford gave birth to her daughter Ellie, she decided to try breastfeeding again and was thrilled that she producing more than enough milk this time around. “Ellie won’t take a bottle from me, so I nurse on demand with her. Our deep freezer was starting to get full with the milk I had stored, and since she hasn’t had an interest in taking a bottle from me, I started looking into donation.”
“I’ve heard lots of people say ‘breast is best’ and while I agree that the nutrients are best for babies, I do not agree with shaming moms who can’t breastfeed, or have trouble with it,” said Clifford, who hopes her donations will help a mom who can’t produce her own milk. “I feel that as a parent, my job is to provide what’s best for my child and if that means giving my baby formula so they don’t starve, then that’s what I will do.”
“Moms already have enough going on emotionally after having a baby, making someone feel bad for choosing formula over nursing shouldn’t be added to the stress.”
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[Featured Image: Instagram/ashleymclifford]
Mom Donates 295 Oz. Of Breast Milk For Moms Who Can’t Breastfeed is an article from: LifeDaily