Based on what I found, I decided to take a more relaxed approach to breastfeeding. I told myself we would try it—but I wasn’t going to be upset with myself if it didn’t work out. Plus, I had the reassurance of my beautiful 7-year-old girl, who drank formula as a baby and was exceptionally healthy and happy. Once the new baby was born, we tried nursing, but it wasn’t working out. I was exhausted from the C-section, my milk wasn’t coming in very well, and we had latching problems that caused me to bleed and be in a lot of pain when I tried to nurse her. On the third day of her life, I decided (with the support of my husband) to stop trying to nurse and give the baby formula instead. But I was completely shocked by the backlash I got from the doctors, nurses, friends, and family. They pushed breastfeeding really hard, even when I made it clear that we had decided to formula-feed her. “It’s best for the baby!” “You need to give it time," and “You need to suck it up” were just a few of the not-so-encouraging words I received just hours after giving birth. I brushed off these comments because I had made an informed decision and it really wasn’t anyone’s business anyway. My new daughter is now 6 months old, and I am happy to say that formula-feeding is going well. We are all very happy and healthy, and I have no guilt about my decision to use formula this time around. But even though formula-feeding was the right choice for me, I find there’s still a lot of unnecessary shaming around this decision. However, when one takes a closer look, a lot of these studies don’t necessarily prove anything. Many of the benefits of breastfeeding are correlations and therefore do not imply causation. Since it’s unethical to randomize groups to breastfeed or not, all of the studies are basically observational. In addition, there are many other variables, such as education level, socioeconomic status, pre-pregnancy weight and smoking status, all of which affect the health of the infant and are also associated with whether or not a woman chooses to breastfeed. Whether breastfeeding helps prevent obesity, type 2 diabetes and postpartum depression, or has a significant impact on child intelligence, is actually still debatable due to differences in study designs and confounding variables—even though it’s often touted as fact. Plus, dominating opinions about breastfeeding from friends, family members, media, health care professionals, and other moms can exaggerate the truth, muddying the factual science. And what isn’t studied as frequently, and is oftentimes overlooked, is the impact of the stress a mother experiences because of feeding choice. In other words: What if the health and well-being of the mother might actually be compromised as a result of pushing breastfeeding? In fact, a stressed-out, sleep-deprived mother is arguably more harmful—to both mother and baby—than feeding an infant formula. Feelings of anxiety and fatigue are already common among new mothers. If breastfeeding only adds more stress, it may further amplify symptoms associated with postpartum depression—and feelings of guilt for choosing to formula-feed don’t help the situation. Unfortunately, high parental stress affects bonding between mother and baby and can hinder the mother’s ability to respond correctly to certain infant signals. In other words, decreasing maternal anxiety, stress, and fatigue as much as possible paves the way for a healthy relationship between the mother and infant. And if formula-feeding can help do that, then a bottle might be the best option for both mama and baby. After all, there is a huge disparity between women who initially breastfeed and those who actually continue doing it, showing that it can be harder and more stressful than most people like to admit. Her research achievements have been honored by awards from several groups including the New York Academy of Sciences, the American Psychological Association, the National Institute on Drug Abuse, and her research has been funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and National Eating Disorders Association. She also maintains a blog, Food Junkie, with Psychology Today.
