Happy Medium Monday

Did you know that last week was World Breastfeeding Week or that August is National Breastfeeding Month?

Neither did I.

I wasn’t aware of either event until I saw this hashtag on Twitter: #ISupportYou.

The message seemed positive, if vague. I wanted to know who was being supported. I clicked on it and discovered that three bloggers, Fearless Formula Feeder, Mama by the Bay and I Am Not the Babysitter, organized a week-long campaign that lets all mothers know they are supported no matter how they choose to feed their child.

For me, I chose to breastfeed, but couldn’t. I felt a great deal of shame and anxiety about this even though I had several coworkers that chose to formula feed. I worried that the rest of the world would judge me for something that was out of my control. I think a message of support like this one would have eased many of my worries, many of which irrationally linger five years later.

As I explored bloggers participating in the campaign, I stumbled upon Jessica at School of Smock’s post “I Support You, Nicole.” I discovered that Nicole is a British blogger who writes about breastfeeding over at Evidence Based Tits and Teeth. In the interview she shared her own experiences with breastfeeding. At the conclusion, there was a call for formula feeders to share their stories with Nicole. I sent her a link to my post “Not a mother figure.”

Even though Nicole advocates for breastfeeding, she realizes that taking an extreme stance on it only leads to an unnecessary divide among mothers. To counteract these extremes, she began her series “Happy Medium Monday,” stories written from both “boob and bottle” perspectives. Today she featured my experience. Please click here to read my story and to check out others in the series.

My healthy boy drinking formula. To all you mothers out there: I support you.

I’m spreading the #ISupportYou message by linking up with the “I Don’t Like Mondays” blog hop.

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