She shared the cover of Holly Whitaker’s new book, Quit Like a Woman: The Radical Choice to Not Drink in a Culture Obsessed with Alcohol on Instagram and revealed that it helped her quit drinking. (Source: Twitter/@chrissyteigen) American model Chrissy Teigen recently wrote a series of honest tweets and shared her views on topics like breastfeeding and formula milk. In a Twitter thread, she wrote that it is important to normalise formula milk. “Normalize breastfeeding is such a huge, wonderful thing. But I absolutely felt way more shame having to use formula because of lack of milk from depression and whatnot,” the mother of two wrote, adding: “People have surrogates, people have trouble breastfeeding and all you hear as a new, anxious mom is how breast is best.”
“‘Normalize breastfeeding’ is great. ‘Normalize formula’ is great, too!”
In her tweets, Teigen went on to share that she pumped her breast milk often, because she “didn’t trust milk was going into their mouths” when she breastfed. “It drove me mad to the point I could only get an ounce. An ounce!”
ok I’m gonna say something and you all are definitely gonna make it a thing but here goes: normalize formula.
— chrissy teigen (@chrissyteigen) November 29, 2020
“The stress of it, combined with the guilt that you cannot do nature’s most natural thing for your own baby is too much. I don’t know why this is my crusade now. I just remember the sadness I felt and want you to know you are doing it right if your baby is fed, mama,” she further wrote.
Her followers immediately jumped in to praise her for raising some valid points and taking an important stand on a topic that is widely considered to be a taboo.
As an OB nurse, I can tell you, fed is best. Want to breastfeed? Awesome! Want to formula feed? Awesome! A little of both? Awesome! As long as you’re not feeding your baby Mt. Dew, you are winning.
— Erin Wevers (@hecticbuthappy) November 29, 2020
“As an OB nurse, I can tell you, fed is best. Want to breastfeed? Awesome! Want to formula feed? Awesome! A little of both? Awesome! (sic),” someone wrote.
“Normalize motherhood. Women are shamed for absolutely every choice we make as mothers. Every. Single. One. (sic),” another person added.
Normalize motherhood. Women are shamed for absolutely every choice we make as mothers. Every. Single. One.
— Michelle (@Michelle_RJones) November 29, 2020
While breastfeeding has its proven benefits, there may be many reasons for a new mother to not be able to express milk and feed her baby. And sometimes, a parent may make a conscious decision to not have their baby breastfed. Whatever may be the case, Teigen stresses that having options and making choices should be normalised. And for that, no mother should ever be shamed.
Recently, after losing her third child, Teigen and singer husband John Legend had taken to social media to document their pain in pictures. “We are shocked and in the kind of deep pain you only hear about, the kind of pain we’ve never felt before. We were never able to stop the bleeding and give our baby the fluids he needed, despite bags and bags of blood transfusions. It just wasn’t enough,” they had written.
While some people had questioned their decision to grieve publicly, others had lauded them for doing so, and for telling so many parents around the world that they are not alone, and that it happens to many people.
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