Breastfeeding

Rapper Cardi B and formula maker Bobbie are pushing back against stigmas that hurt new moms. (Credit: Wikimedia Commons) Cardi B has never shied away from saying what’s on her mind. Now, the award-winning rap artist – who is also a mother to several kiddos – is speaking out about the stigmas that persist around breastfeeding, among other matters of importance to her and her fellow moms, from insufficient paid-leave policies to maternal mortality rates. In an interview with Vogue this week, Cardi B (whose real name is Belcalis Marlenis Almánzar) disclosed that she’s partnering with organic baby formula maker Bobbie to raise awareness about these and other common postpartum concerns. The partnership will entail an information blitz to educate the public on what new moms endure, and how unsupported they frequently are while grappling with those problems; a bargain on formula itself; and a push to contact local legislators to demand codified change. Breastfeeding struggles are a particularly personal pain point for Cardi B. “Sometimes your baby wants to eat in two hours, and sometimes your baby wants to eat in 45 minutes – and it takes me two hours just to produce two ounces of milk,” she told the magazine. “It almost made me feel like, ‘Does it make me less of a woman if I can’t produce as much milk as the next woman?’ I don’t think people understand how frustrating it is.” I’ll admit, her words brought tears to my eyes – ones of relief, to see my own experience echoed so publicly, in ways I never have before. To Be Real About It… Breastfeeding was an intensely painful and discouraging experience for me, one that made the already-difficult postpartum period that much harder to weather. And I’ve rarely, if ever, felt comfortable discussing that fact. But to get into it now: I was never able to produce enough milk to feed my son – the problem was apparent even during those first precious, overwhelming days in the hospital. But I was encouraged (a diplomatic way to describe the pressure) by everyone from the nurses around me to our pediatrician at the time to focus on trying. Nevermind the expected soreness that was exacerbated significantly by my efforts, or the lack of results. Trying was the key, they said – the more I pumped, the more lactation-promoting cookies I wolfed down, the more feeding positions I tried and the more consultants I paid to speak with, the better things would eventually get. Only, they didn’t. And in his earliest weeks, my son lost weight rapidly because my body alone just couldn’t sustain him. To this day – he turned 7 years old earlier this month – I cannot bring myself to look at photographs of my son’s first weeks of life after leaving the hospital, because I remain so wracked with guilt over the experience. It never got easier. In fact, once I returned to work, it only got worse. I still recall jags spent standing in a bathroom stall – an amount of time on my feet that was difficult to endure in and of itself, as I recovered from a c-section – weeping silently in pain and immense frustration as I attempted to pump, only to produce a few meager droplets after 30 minutes’ time had elapsed. What saved him, me, everything … was formula. To me, formula is a modern miracle – manna from heaven, delivered to us not from the sky but by way of scientific advancement. There aren’t words for how grateful I am to live in a time when this option existed to sustain him. Silence Compounding the Problem When I zoom out, I see that I’m actually far from alone. Studies show that while the majority of infants are breastfed at some point (85%), certainly not all are, and often not for as long as their mothers had planned to before giving birth. Less than half are exclusively breastfed in their first three months of life, a figure that wanes with each subsequently measured length of time. All the same, discussing my experience has never proven cathartic before. Rather, I’ve frequently been greeted by the very stigmas Cardi B and Bobbie are now pushing back against. The questions, heavy with judgement, about what I failed to test out when I struggled to produce, the dismissive comments based on others' comparatively easy experiences... When moms talk about breastfeeding around me, I usually opt not to say anything at all. But the thing is, it was in opening up that I found what I needed to get through that tender, at-times quite scary postpartum period. My mother, who fed me formula in my earliest days, was always quick to remind me that what matters most is a baby getting what they need to survive and grow. It was a message I clung to like a talisman, warding off my struggles with inadequacy and my own doubts about the validity of my very womanhood – as if such experiences even define womanhood at all – by grounding myself in the far greater importance of my son being properly nourished. Which is why Cardi B’s effort with Bobbie deeply matters. So many of our struggles as moms remain unsaid, because our society continues to demand a form of motherhood that is not only flawlessly executed, but also visibly painless and flatly joyful. And it’s not just the tradwives pushing this faux-uncomplicated, all-natural-everything, breast-is-best message in 2025, either. Cardi B and Bobbie said that, through this effort, they want to “hype up every feeding journey, unapologetically.” The information is critical – but so is that lack of “sorry.” ◼️

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Fed Up on a Work Trip, a Mom Launched a Startup for Shipping Breast Milk Home

The Story Exchange

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