Tamera Mowry-Housley became the latest celebrity to post a photo of herself breastfeeding a newborn in social media. The photo, posted on her Instagram page last week on November 27, accompanied a blog post on the topic where she also revealed her struggles breastfeeding her first born, son, Aden.
“Breastfeeding Ariah has been amazing, in large part because I learned a lot from my experience with Aden,” the TV host of The Real captioned the photo. ”
In the post, she reflects on the challenges of nursing her son:
I know I’m not the only woman to have felt this way. In fact, I didn’t have it as bad as some women do. Breastfeeding can come easy and it can be nearly impossible. There are a ton of reasons for this, but the one that affected me was Aden’s latch. It took some time, but I finally learned how to get the right latch, and then breastfeeding was much easier. Let me tell you you, if breastfeeding is important to you, do not leave the hospital unless you’ve had the right latch with your baby!
The experience made her nervous about breastfeeding her daughter, Ariah, now 4-months old.
When it came time tobreastfeed Ariah, I have to admit I was a little worried. I wanted to be sure that I could give her my antibodies, feed her nutrients and give her enough of my milk to help prevent her from getting sick. Thankfully my worries were unwarranted. I took everything I learned from my experience with Aden and Ariah had the perfect latch from day one. The nurses even commented that they wished Ariah could teach the other babies there! Lol.
Indeed it was a different experience, she added:
Where breastfeeding with Aden was challenging, with Ariah it’s been unbelievable. I can’t fully express how it actually feels, but the bond it’s building between us is amazing. I cherish every second I can sit down and feed her. It’s our private time together, and I really find it so relaxing. It makes me feel good to know that I can give her everything that her body needs, and I plan to do so until she’s one year. And women must do what’s right for their baby–which can include bottle feeding of course. In that case, I’ve discovered that Gentle Gerber formula is best!
I’ve learned to trust my baby. I hope hearing my story will help any new mommas out there!
Good job! We’ve talked about the benefits of celebrities sharing their breastfeeding journey and stories, not only to inspire others to try, but also to share that they are not alone with struggles, as Mowry-Housley did. Often times, when they do, outspoken folks call them fame whores exploiting their babies for attention. But we noticed most of the comments about Mowry-Houeley’s have been supportive, perhaps because she also shared her challenges as well.
We didn’t see the same level of admonition from the breastfeeding shaming public as we’ve seen in the past (Jessie James Decker, Alyssa Milano, Model Ashley Nicole , Eric Benet’s wife Manuela Tostolini, ) so maybe this means people are slowly getting over it. Who knows.
Bravo!
Photos: Instagram