Hilary Duff has stopped breastfeeding over fears she was "going to break".
The 31-year-old actress welcomed her daughter Banks – whom she has with her partner Matthew Koma – six months ago, and has revealed she’s decided to stop breastfeeding the tot because she was struggling to cope with pumping whilst working on the set of her TV show ‘Younger’.
In a lengthy Instagram post, Hilary – who also has seven-year-old son Luca with her ex Mike Comrie – wrote: "Last week was my last week nursing Banks (my six month old). I am a working mom of two. My goal was to get my little girl to six months and then decide if I (and her of course) wanted to keep going.
"Let me tell you. Pumping at work sucks. I had zero down time and am usually pumping in a hair and make up trailer while four hands work to get me ready for the next scene with lots of other people around. Even if I had the luxury to be in my own room, it’s not even considered a "break" because you have to sit upright for the milk to flow into the bottles! Plus you are having your damn nipples tugged at by an aggressive machine that makes an annoying sound, that echoes through your head day and night (I swear that machine and I had many conversations at midnight and 3 am)! (sic)"
Hilary went on to say she managed to keep breastfeeding with her first child because she didn’t return to work until he was nine months old, but hasn’t been able to do that with Banks.
She continued: "Anyway, I didn’t know this because with Luca I didn’t work until he was about nine months old, so I didn’t pump very often. Your milk supply drastically drops when you stop feeding as often and lose the actual contact and connection with your baby. So I was eating all the fenugreek goats butt blessed thistle fennel cookies/drops/shakes/pills I could get my hands on! It was maddening. (sic)"
Hilary says she "enjoyed every moment" of being able to breastfeed her tot and understands that not every woman is able to do so, but insists she was "going to break" if she didn’t stop, as the process was making her "sad and frustrated".
She wrote: "With all of this complaining, I want to say I enjoyed (almost) every moment of feeding my daughter. Felt so lucky to be so close to her and give her that start. I know many women are not able to and for that I am sympathetic and very grateful that I could. For six wonderful months. But I needed a break. I was going to break. With the stress of a dropping milk supply and a baby that was getting bored or not caring about nursing when I was available to. I was sad and frustrated and feeling like a failure all of the time. When really I’m a bad ass rock star. Moms get high on feeling like superwoman … because we are! Doing too much, because we can! (sic)"
Hilary Duff has stopped breastfeeding
