article_snippet: It was an attitude that not only threatened my health but also tarnished the first weeks with my precious firstborn and made me angry that women are put under such pressure to breast-feed that common sense flies out of the window.
article_snippet: The questions about whether I intended to breast-feed began at my first prenatal appointment when I was 12 weeks pregnant and continued for the next six months.
article_snippet: Friends, family, colleagues; it seemed everyone wanted to know my intentions and to preach how breast-feeding was natural, easy, the right thing to do.
article_snippet: I wanted to breast-feed; it can be a wonderful, bonding experience and mother’s milk protects against illnesses and allergies but the constant pressure to breast-feed takes no account of the fact not every woman can.
article_snippet: Anxious to know if I was doing things right, I asked a breastfeeding consultant’s advice.
article_snippet: When I found a hard, round mass in the tissue of my right breast I asked the breast-feeding consultant to take a look.
article_snippet: My GP diagnosed mastitis (inflammation of the breast) and gave me antibiotics but instead of being supportive and reassuring, the breast-feeding consultant insisted I use my right breast.
article_snippet: I asked a consultant if I should feed with her right breast.
article_snippet: By now, so nervous I was doing things wrong, I was spending hours travelling all over Cardiff to various breast-feeding workshops for struggling new mothers.
article_snippet: No one could say whether I should breast-feed or not.
article_snippet: Each time I asked whether I should stop breast-feeding I got a noncommittal answer.
article_snippet: Finally, when Summer was three months old, I was prescribed an 11th course of antibiotics and my consultant said I could not breastfeed while taking that drug.
article_snippet: Looking back, it is astonishing that despite speaking to 17 health workers about breastfeeding over three months, while suffering from six abscesses, I was never told to stop.
article_snippet: Laura (pictured) says it was the pressure to breastfeed from the NHS, society and Laura (pictured)
article_snippet: The pressure to breast-feed, from the NHS, society and even from yourself, means you are too scared to stop.
article_snippet: Doctors and other medics should silence the ‘breast is best’ mantra and treat new mothers as individuals, taking into account what Doctors and other medics have been through.