Olivia Munn has a message for new moms out there: give yourselves a break on the breastmilk guilt. “To the mamas out there — do whatever you need to feed your baby,” she revealed on Instagram on Tuesday. “And don’t let anyone make you feel bad about it.”
After struggling with low milk supply, she ended up feeling exhausted and defeated. “I felt like my body was failing,” Munn, 41, revealed in an Instagram video on Tuesday. “I worried I wouldn’t bond with my baby.”
But she didn’t give up. Instead, she worked with two different lactation consultants, tried several breastfeeding pillows, ate lactation-boosting soups, teas and cookies, and drank liters of coconut water. She even wore a device around her neck with tubes taped to her breasts to try to stimulate milk production while she gave her baby the nutrients that he needs.
She mom’d so hard on this, y’all, but as we all know, sometimes it’s not the effort that determines the outcome when it comes to all things parenting. “None of it worked!” Munn shared. “I cried and cried.”
Eventually, Munn realized that breastfeeding and formula are both good. Experts agree. Encino, California Pediatrician Dr. Irwin Bruckner tells moms and dads that breast milk is A+, while formula is a solid A. “There’s so much more to parenting than giving your baby breast milk. There’s smiling, there’s cuddling, there’s dancing,” Bruckner told TODAY Parents. “So if breastfeeding is wearing you down so much that you’re not doing those other things, it’s not worth going the extra distance to get the A+ in breast milk as opposed to the A in formula.”
Munn’s followers on Instagram responded swiftly to her Instagram post, replying “I had the same issues. It wore me out physically and emotionally,” and “THANK YOU! My OB told me ‘Breastfeeding, formula, he doesn’t care, just feed him.’” Seems like her fan base just got a lot bigger.
—Shelley Massey
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