A while back, model Chrissy Teigan started a campaign to “normalize formula feeding”. This is my response. Like all of us, you're doing the best you can in your given situation.

However you feed your baby, you shouldn't feel shame.

The situations new mothers are put in are unbearably hard, and you do what you have to to get by.

If the situation was different - if mothers were supported rather than backed into corners where something had to give, how many more of us would succeed in our goal to breastfeed?

80% of women leave their birth intending to breastfeed. By 6 months, only 15% of us are still going.

Formula is an important tool, but it's not how most women start out intending to feed their babies. And those who choose it aren't doing so because they don't care about their kids - they choose it because it's the best option given their unique situation.

But would more of us breastfeed if we had proper support?

What if instead of jumping back to your responsibilities immediately after birth, your community helped with older children & dropped off food?

What if instead of being forcibly separated from your baby at 6 weeks (or earlier) because you have to return to work, you could be home (paid) for 6 months?

What if instead of having to pump in a bathroom stall at work, there were private pumping rooms available as standard?

We have so much stacked against us as new mothers - we definitely don't need shame added to that.

So let's change the conversation. Let's talk more about how society is failing those of us who want to breastfeed so we can change it.

And let's also mind our own damn business about how other people feed their kids.