At 13 weeks pregnant, Leah Beyer created her Instagram account to document her pregnancy and journey into motherhood. She wanted to show an honest portrait of what it's like, even if it's the brutal truth.
Since starting her posts, she has given birth to a daughter, Penelope, and in a recent post, she admitted that breastfeeding was hard. She snapped a photo of herself, a little distressed, perhaps tired, and wrote about all the trials and difficulties of breastfeeding.
Of course, any mom will recognize the feelings they had when they first started breastfeeding, and how hard it must have been. It doesn't come naturally to everyone.
Leah wants to push past those difficulties. However, she clarified that it's OK if not every mom is able to — after all, fed is best!
You can read her post below. Let us know what you think in the comments, and if you have a story about your time breastfeeding, please share it!
"Ok, I'm going to say it for us all. Breastfeeding is hard. It's really, really hard. Sometimes I can't even explain what makes it so difficult. The uncertainty, second guessing, responsibility, commitment, discomfort…just to name a few."
"We trusted our bodies to grow our babies for 9 months and now we have to trust our body to supply the nourishment for our babes growth & development. Talk about pressure."
"Breastfeeding is full of unanswered questions. You truly don't know what's going on down there. Too much? Too little? Too intense? Not enough hindmilk? Not enough time? Plugged duct? Mastitis? WTF!!! As if it wasn't hard enough."
"And of course the biggest way to know if you're doing well is if the baby is gaining weight…great, let me just whip out my handy dandy baby scale."
"But, even with all of that. We all so desperately want to survive and push through. We so badly want to have our baby thrive. We want that relationship. We want the experience. In the end, fed is best. That's what matters. But all I know right now is that breastfeeding is hard. I am doing my very best but always have a question in the back of my mind. Always second guessing myself. Always wondering if I'm doing OKAY. I'm determined to tough it out. I want to do this."
"Mamas really do need all the support they can get. So mama, you're hearing it from me, you're not going crazy, it is hard, but you're doing good. Keep going!! There's a rumor going around that it gets easier."
Please SHARE to show your support for all breastfeeding mamas!
