Pressure to breastfeed: from inside or out?
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I had very difficult experiences breastfeeding both of my children. I had constant pain, recurrent plugged ducts, and a lot of latch problems. There were many times when I considered quitting, but I persevered because it meant a lot to me, and I would have felt like I was failing had I stopped. Does this sound familiar?
I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately. There has been a huge pushback in the last few years AGAINST exclusive breastfeeding, with one of the reasons being that public health campaigns such as the Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative (BFHI) are putting pressure and guilt onto moms to keep going, fight through the pain, lose sleep to pump as much as possible, even to the detriment of mom’s own health. And while I admit that the BFHI has not been perfect (and is in the process of being revamped to make it more “mom and baby-friendly,” this pushback has not been sitting well with me. I complet