Motherhood is hard no matter what, but when breastfeeding isn’t going as planned, it can be even harder.
Former "Real Housewives of Orange County" star Gretchen Rossi took to Instagram Thursday to share her personal struggle, in honor of World Breastfeeding Week.
Rossi, 40, gave birth to daughter Skylar Gray, her first child with longtime partner Slade Smiley, on July 10. Since welcoming Skylar, Rossi has struggled to breastfeed.
In an Instagram post detailing her journey, Rossi wrote that “this pic right here is how I imagined in my mind that breastfeeding would be, beautiful, peaceful, maternal, and glorious....me just calm and relaxed, looking and feeling great all the while bonding with my precious baby girl staring into her eyes while she feed from my breast.....Boy was I ever wrong.”
She continued, “Breastfeeding has been nowhere near this magical as I imagined in my head. I have cried so many times from being frustrated, from being beyond exhausted, from the pain and horrible sore nipples (as they literally scabbed over and or were bright pink from all the skin being rubbed off), from the guilt of feeling like 'I don’t want to do this anymore because it is uncomfortable, exhausting, painful, takes way too much time' ...”
Rossi added that she tried to prepare herself as best as she could before Skylar's arrival.
“I took every class you could take, read so many books, did so much research and was determined to 'push through' the tough parts so I could give my baby girl the very best,” she wrote. “But I quickly realized it just wasn’t that easy, and if I wasn’t at 'my best' I couldn’t give her 'the best' because my body wouldn’t cooperate or produce enough milk etc.”
Despite her struggles with breastfeeding, Rossi is determined to keep at it. Rossi wrote she is “hoping to help open the conversation for any other new mommies out there who have gone through the struggle, and or who will be going through what I have this past month.”
Rossi ended the post with a call to action: “Please share your story below and let’s all help uplift each other up as woman and Moms who are just trying to do our very best, at one of the toughest jobs in the world.”
