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Paloma Faith opens up about her own struggles with breastfeeding: ‘Sometimes it just doesn’t work’
Paloma Faith opened up about her own experience so others wouldn’t feel alone (Picture: Rex/Instagram)
Paloma Faith has shared her own experience with breastfeeding her second child to help other mothers know they are not alone if they struggle.
The singer, 40, used breastfeeding awareness week to open up about how different her breastfeeding experience was with her new baby compared to her first daughter.
She wrote alongside a snap of her baby latching on: ‘I managed to breast feed my first baby well and exclusively for 7 months and I felt like it was very connecting and bonding.
‘There were times where I hated that bond, when I would be out enjoying myself and start lactating and just know she’d woken up and my partner would say she hadn’t but then realise she had! Like two interconnected whales. It was hard to start and hard to stop in the end.
‘Then with my second I thought it would be easy because I had done it before. It wasn’t. She had problems feeding from day one. I tried everything.’
Paloma ended up in hospital after complications arose, which led to her eventually moving her daughter onto bottle feeding instead.
Paloma admitted breastfeeding didn’t come easy the second time around (Picture: Instagram)
She explained: ‘After a bout back in hospital with an infection (sepsis), I ended up exclusively pumping, and now she’s exclusively formula fed.
‘She still has some nipple aversion problems I can’t identify. She clamps her mouth shut and will only split feed, taking little amounts at a time. It’s exhausting. But it’s less exhausting than if she was doing it to my boob.
‘So I am so happy that all the options are available because without them we would both be miserable.’
Paloma had tried everything to help with breastfeeding but ended up with sepsis (Picture: Paloma Faith/Instagram)
Paloma addressed the pressure many mothers feel to breastfeed despite it not always working, adding: ‘Coming from a person who has done both I just want to say that sometimes it just doesn’t work, that’s no reflection on you as a mother.
‘I know everyone says breast milk is best but I honestly think with my baby she became healthier the moment I switched to formula.
‘She never cries now, she always smiles, she’s defo not over weight (there is a stigma that formula babies are over weight) and she really really loves her mama…… Dont be hard on yourself ladies.
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‘This is a picture of the early days when I was trying to breast feed and I was deflated and confused because it had come so naturally before. Ps I’m about to dump 6 months of frozen pumped breast milk in the bin. It’s a sad day but it is what it is. The main thing is we are all happy!’
Paloma and her partner Leyman Lahcine welcomed their second baby in February and the couple also share a five-year-old daughter.
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