I have a 1 month old and he has so far been only breastfed except for 1 bottle in the hospital when I had a 4am hormone meltdown and 1 bottle at about 2 weeks old when he wanted to feed for 6 hours straight. I'm not particularly 'militant' about breastfeeding but I wanted to give it a good try.
I got some help from the midwives in hospital and then the breastfeeding specialist came to my house to check on me and we have no problems with latch or anything, but now I don't know if I've got problems with milk supply because lately he has been getting so frustrated during feeds (pulls his head away, thrashes about, cries - I try winding him but it's not that) that I am not sure he is getting enough milk. He fed from 4am til about 8am this morning so I was already exhausted before the day even really began.
Tonight he started feeding at 6pm and by 8:30 when he was still hungry and crying I cracked and gave him formula, he took 3oz (had no idea how much to give so I guessed). Now he's sleeping and he looks so content that it makes me feel really sad that I couldn't feed him enough to make him that happy and get him to sleep.
Now I feel guilty that I want to stop because I don't really have a reason to other than I'm starting to feel so unhappy. I had a horrible pregnancy and pretty bad depression throughout so I'm really worried about PND.
I don't have anyone to share the work with, his father doesn't live in this country and we won't be able to see him for a few more months so switching to bottles wouldn't make life easier in that respect. I don't really mind about making life easier anyway it's just that I feel unhappy but because I know breastmilk is so good for him it feels selfish to stop.
My cousin just had a baby and she formula feeds and has had none of this guilt, she's not the type to hide her feelings and she just said she didn't like breastfeeding so she didn't want to do it. Why am I beating myself up so much about it if she isn't?
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Infant feeding
hate breastfeeding but feel guilty about wanting to stop
15 replies
nowwhat · 06/07/2013 21:47
OP posts:
NatashaBee ·
06/07/2013 22:26
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AidanTheRevengeNinja ·
07/07/2013 21:18
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AidanTheRevengeNinja ·
07/07/2013 21:23
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