Breastfeeding your baby is a choice. Shaming mothers who do not and cannot breastfeed is wrong, in my opinion. Sometimes Mother’s cannot produce enough breast milk, and have to rely on formula. I am grateful that I was able to produce enough breast milk for my daughter.My daughter latched on with no trouble after birth. What I didn’t expect was the cramps I would feel when I first started breastfeeding. After a few weeks the cramps during the feeding times stopped. It was painful at first and my nipples felt tight. My milk was slow to come in at first but with the help of drinking Mother’s Milk tea. My breast milk supply began to increase. I brought Mother’s Milk tea to the hospital and drank it after I gave birth. This is a big tip to mothers who are planning on breastfeeding. Drinking it right after I gave birth helped increase my milk supply.  Breastfeeding for me has created a bond between my daughter and I.

Downside:

· Feeling Tied Down: You are your baby’s main source of food and nurturance. The mistake I made was that I only breastfeed. I did not pump and train my daughter on a bottle early on. This caused my daughter to reject the bottle when I tried to go back to work. I should have breastfeed her and also put my breast milk in a bottle. This would have allowed me to work and have time to myself. I had to quit my job and stay home to make sure my daughter would eat. The next time I have a baby, I will breastfeed and also pump into a bottle early on.

·  Nipple Pain: My nipples are worn and torn. Only exclusively breastfeeding caused my nipples to stretch and have pain. The worst pain was when my daughters teeth came. I had to ice my nipples to take down the swelling and use various nipple creams. The nipple creams do not take away the pain; they just help your nipple from becoming dry and cracked. A cracked nipple is a bad nipple.

·  Milk leaking:  Nursing pads were a life saver for me. My nipples would randomly start leaking throughout the day. This happened even after my daughter would stop eating. The nursing pads stopped the milk from soaking my shirts in public. Waking up to change my shirt from soaked milk became a normal routine.

· Breastfeeding in Public: People are rude and are not understanding of breastfeeding in public. Even with my nursing cover people always stared. I quickly began to not care and focused on feeding my daughter.  

Perks:

· FREE: Breast milk is FREE and natural. If you are a new mom, I recommend that you research how expensive formula is. I continue to breastfeed because for starters my daughter out right refuses the bottle, and I cannot afford the cost of formula.

· Bonding: Breastfeeding my daughter created a bond between us right away. She depends and trusts me to nourish her.

· Convenient: I did not have to get up at night to make a bottle. I was able to just lay on my side and feed my daughter. I did not have to clean or pack bottles. I could feed her anywhere and anytime.

·   Did I forget to say it is FREE!