Made In Chelsea star Louise Thompson has taken to her Instagram to open up to her 1.4 million followers about her struggles with breastfeeding.
Louise, 31, shared four pictures of her holding baby Leo, who was born in November and shares with fiancé Ryan Libbey.
She held on to her son in the pictures as she wore a patterned short dress with a high collar and puffed sleeves.
While little Leo who looked cute in a white babygrow and beige jumper.
The reality star had her long brunette hair neatly tied back in a low ponytail and had a middle parting.
She started the post by warning followers it was a brutally honest birth post, as she wrote: “Trigger warning: birth trauma.”
She began: “For a while I was mindful about posting anything with Leo and a plastic bottle in it because I thought I would be judged. I remember when I first came home I told Ryan that he couldn’t post an insta story because it had a bottle in the back of shot. I was constantly on the look out for those ugly little things. Of course I’d prefer to display the all natural, wholesome, skin on skin kinda look…”
She continued: “… but that wasn’t a reality for me. I didn’t have a choice in the matter, so I shouldn’t have put so much blame on myself for ‘not choosing, but choosing’ to bottle feed our son.
"I think it’s important to highlight these sorts of experiences in an attempt to break down the stigma attached to bottle feeding and other challenges that new parents face. The truth is – there are lots of women who can’t breast feed and many of those women feel racked with guilt because of what society sees as the optimal option.
"It’s funny I always hated the ‘breast is best’ label that was thrown around during the online NCT classes I did."
The reality star went on: "Most lactation specialists take the general stance that you should ‘keep going, you can do it’ because they think many mothers give up ‘too soon’ in their eyes.
"I remember being encouraged to breast feed after my first operation. My baby was practically thrown onto me. I was linked up to one of the 10+ blood transfusions I had and I was on quite a lot of meds and something about it just felt really gross. I was too ashamed to say no so I carried on."
Her post went on: “Then I experienced excruciating pain as my damaged uterus was contracting (and bleeding), but I was told to keep on going. The funny thing is I was actually really good at it. Leo was amazing at latching and I had lots of milk, and whilst it was nice for bonding something about it just didn’t feel right.
“Anyway it turns out I did know my body pretty well because the pain turned out to be serious and I ended up in intensive care where I lost my milk anyway. Sometimes people should accept that we know our own bodies best. There isn’t always a one size fits all policy when it comes to health (or raising a child for that matter). So you do you.
“For those that have ever," she wrote as she added a pointing down finger emoji, signifying her message continued in the comments.
Louise added in a comment of the post: "For those that have ever glanced at a woman feeding a newborn with a bottle and questioned it in their head, there are several reasons why mums might not be able to breast feed besides being in intensive care."
Louise then added a list of reasons why women may not breast feed from an "imbalance of crucial hormones" to "premature birth" before adding "the list goes on".
She then ended the message with: "And if you are one of the people who was denied the glorious breastfeeding experience for whatever reason then I want you to know that you are not alone, you are not a failure AND that plenty of babies are raised to be absolute stallions from formula.
"Leo is thriving while I’m surviving."
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Fans were quick to praise Louise on her being so open about her birth experience.
One wrote: “These posts from you are so raw and real and you should be proud of how many women will take comfort in reading these.”
Another penned: “Love this post, you are both incredible.”
While a third shared: “It's also important not to stigmatise those that choose to bottle feed for non medical reasons and the reality is we shouldn't really be trying to justify it for them or for anyone. It's not any of anyone's business. Like a previous commenter says, fed is best and that's where it ends.”
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