MIC's Louise Thompson on trauma of being "judged" for not breastfeeding her son
Former Made in Chelsea star Louise Thompson has opened up about the "trauma" she experienced after being judged online for not breastfeeding her son. Taking to Instagram, she opened up to her 1.4 million followers about the backlash she's received, stressing that she wants to "break down the stigma" when it comes to breastfeeding or bottle feeding.
"Trigger warning: birth trauma," she wrote at the start of her caption, which was posted alongside a photo of her bottle feeding her son. "For a while I was mindful about posting anything with Leo and a plastic bottle in it because I thought I would be judged."
She went on, "Of course I’d prefer to display the all natural, wholesome, skin on skin kinda look... but that wasn’t a reality for me. I didn’t have a choice in the matter, so I shouldn’t have put so much blame on myself for 'not choosing, but choosing' to bottle feed our son."
Pointing out why she'd chosen to open up about her experience, the reality TV star added: "The truth is – there are lots of women who can’t breast feed and many of those women feel racked with guilt because of what society sees as the optimal option." She continued, "I think it’s important to highlight these sorts of experiences in an attempt to break down the stigma attached to bottle feeding and other challenges that new parents face."
Highlighting how phrases such as "breast is best" have had an impact on her, the 31-year-old encouraged others not to feel ashamed when it comes to how they feed their baby. "I always hated the 'breast is best' label that was thrown around," she wrote. "Most lactation specialists take the general stance that you should ‘keep going, you can do it’ because they think many mothers give up ‘too soon’ in their eyes."
Referencing her difficult labour, which resulted in her spending a period of time in intensive care, Louise added: "I remember being encouraged to breast feed after my first operation. My baby was practically thrown onto me. I was linked up to one of the 10+ blood transfusions I had and I was on quite a lot of meds and something about it just felt really gross. I was too ashamed to say no so I carried on."
She explained that despite experiencing "excruciating pain" she was encouraged to keep going, although she knew something "didn’t feel right".
"Sometimes people should accept that we know our own bodies best," she emphasised. "There isn’t always a one size fits all policy when it comes to health (or raising a child for that matter). So you do you."
We couldn't agree more!
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