Guilty to formula feed baby

Hi mums, I have a 3 month old little boy and he has been formula fed from birth. Long story short but I experienced quite a traumatic birth (FTM, 42 weeks, induction, 10 hour labour, obstruction and then c-section). My body went through a lot and my milk supply didn't come through till 2 weeks later. I wasn't against formula feeding but I always had my mind set on breastfeeding. When my milk finally came through my mental health had plummet because we had just started to get into a rhythm with bottles and I didn't realise I could mix feed etc (my fault for not educating myself). Does anyone else experience guilt, regret or waves of emotions when feeding your baby? I think I experience this more so in public places especially when I'm around other mums that are breastfeeding. It makes me wonder if I feeling jealous by their feeding journey.

Show your support

My journey wasn’t the exact same but I EBF for 4 weeks and then had to change to formula due to me being ill and in hospital for nearly two weeks. Although if I’m honest my mental health massively improved with formula, but I did feel sad that I lost that connection with my baby. Even now at 9 months when I’m giving him a bottle I sometimes feel sad and wish I could just feed him from me instead. It is really normal to feel the ways you are, especially if in theory you’ve had breastfeeding taken from you rather than choose to formula feed instead. I just have to keep telling myself that as long as he’s fed that’s all that matters. And there really is no difference between babies that are formula and breastfed either xx

Firstly, you’re not alone mama, I didn’t realise breast feeding guilt is a real thing! I had a traumatic birth - the delivery was fine even though he was over 3 weeks early but shortly after his birth he was taken to NICU as he had issues with his breathing, long story short he ended up in there for over a week being treated with suspected sepsis. During his admission, I was pumping and he was given my expressed breast milk. He latched on the breast okay initially but he still wasn’t putting on much weight so instead I was acting like a milk maid trying to express as much milk as possible. When we come out of hospital, I tried to exclusively breast feed then the HV come over 2 days later and said he was still weighing far less than he should. I had little breast feeding support in my area and it put the fear of god in me that he was unwell and will end up back in hospital! I switched to formula and it worked for us but when I had my 6 week check up I was in a terrible place

I was so upset for giving up so easily, we was still combi feeding but I wasn’t producing enough to EBF him and I really struggled. I’m doing much better now I’ve come to terms with what happened more but breast feeding guilt is real, and it is difficult seeing it happen more naturally to other mums but you went through a trauma and did what was right at the time xxx

‌

‌
‌

‌

‌
‌

‌

‌
‌

‌

‌
‌

‌

‌
‌

‌

‌
‌