'Breast is best.' That message seems to follow mums around these days, coming at us from well-meaning mothers-in-law, profit-driven advertisers and pretty much everyone else.
But mum Annie Ferguson Muscato didn't expect to be told so by a random stranger in a supermarket.
The new mum from Florida was at her local Target buying a can of baby formula when someone came up to her and said 'breast is best.'
Given her history of breastfeeding her little girl, Ellie-Jo, Annie was deeply upset - so upset that she wrote an open letter to the stranger on Facebook.
"My husband and I excitedly took the four-hour breastfeeding class when I was pregnant," she wrote on her post.
"My baby immediately did skin-to-skin and ate from my breast within an hour of her birth."
Despite the easy start, and a visit to a lactation consultant, it wasn't smooth sailing for long.
"My baby began screaming after she ate. Writhing in pain. Inconsolable. I know over the last month and a half I have exclusively pumped and tried slow flow bottles of breast milk, I have tried different positions, I have seen another lactation consultant."
It wasn't until Annie opted for a "hypoallergenic dairy protein-free formula" that her little girl finally started smiling, interacting and sleeping.
"And I cried," she wrote. "Because I thought breast was best. I thought my body failed her."
The last thing she needed was a random person shaming her choice, yet she understood why it happened.
"I know you think I must not care or I'm lazy, or maybe you were genuinely trying to be helpful and thought no one had ever told me the benefits of breastfeeding," she wrote.
"But, you are wrong. What I know that you don't is that breast ISN'T always best. I know happy, healthy baby is best."
"I know FED is best. What I'm sure we both know is that parenting is hard. Really hard. That sometimes what we plan for and what we want just doesn't work out, but we are all here trying to do what's best for our babies."
Unsurprisingly, Annie's fantastic, articulate post has been shared over 37,000 times, with some 10,000 commenters saying they've had similar struggles.
Annie, we salute you. Not all mums can breastfeed, and not all babies can either. Thanks for sharing.
Read Annie's full post below.
