Whatever your breastfeeding journey looks like, it can be reassuring to know you’re not alone in your experience. Enter: mom and writer Olivia Tokunbo’s raw and moving ode to the emotional and physical weight that breastfeeding often bears on a mother. Read on for the validation, solace, and encouragement every nursing mama deserves to hear.
To the mama just begging her baby to latch.
To the mama scrolling through feeds and seeing how beautiful a journey it is for others, how bonding an experience between mother and child, but looking at their own and seeing anxiety, pain, and frustration.
To the mama whose mental health is suffering.
To the mama researching the best supplements.
To the mama feeling rejected by her baby.
To the mama sore with engorgement.
To the mama switching from cradle, to football, to sidelying, to cross cradle.
To the mama whose relationship is struggling.
To the mama searching how much coffee she can safely consume without it affecting her baby.
To the mama who feels guilty she’s still trying.
To the mama haunted by growth percentiles.
To the mama feeling shamed for her choices.
To the mama who doesn’t have access to a lactation consultant.
To the mama cursing at the nipple shield.
To the mama who feels like she’s failing her baby.
To the mama who wants to feel like her body is her own again.
To the mama who is tired of trying.
To the mama crying over spilled milk.
To the mama anxiously leaning over her baby listening for swallows.
To the mama washing endless pump parts.
To the mama who has changed her entire diet.
To the mama stressing about her supply.
To the mama who feels under-supported.
To the mama using donor milk.
To the mama who is juggling a difficult decision.
I see you, I feel you, I am you.
It’s not just you, mama.
