Lauren Conrad says breastfeeding was way harder than she expected

Lauren Conrad is pregnant for the second time, but in her new podcast Asking For a Friend, Conrad explains that two years ago when she became a mom she quickly realized breastfeeding was way harder than she’d imagined.

“I, like a lot of moms, thought that breastfeeding would be the most natural, beautiful thing in the world and that it would just come really easily to me and I would just kind of know what to do because that’s what my body is made to do,” LC explains, adding that “it was, without a doubt, the most difficult part of becoming a new mother.”

She’s certainly not the first mama to feel this way. She’s not even the first Hills alum to feel this way. Back in 2017 In a video for her YouTube series I Love My Baby, But, Whitney Port explained how she, too, had a really hard time with breastfeeding her son, Sonny. “I just hit a breaking point,” Port explained, “and [I] said, ‘I can’t do this. It feels as though someone is slicing my nipples with glass.'”

If you feel that kind of pain, talk to your doctor or lactation consultant right away, because it shouldn’t feel like that. You also shouldn’t feel ashamed if you have problems producing enough milk, but Conrad says she did.

In her podcast she explains that she tried everything she could to increase her supply, from lactation cookies to pills, but it didn’t work. “I felt like I was failing at something that should come really naturally and it was really difficult for me,” said Conrad. “I felt ashamed and it kind of made me feel like a bad mom.”

It’s a shame that she felt that way, but it’s also totally (and unfortunately) common, says Motherly’s Digital Education Editor, Diana Spalding.

Spalding, a midwife, says that while research indicates that breast milk has a ton of benefits for babies, “At a certain point, we also [need] to be considering the mom’s emotional and physical well-being. A super stressed mom isn’t healthy for the baby either.”

So do what you’ve gotta do, mama. Maybe that’s getting more support for yourself when it comes to breastfeeding, or maybe it’s choosing to supplement with formula. Just know that this, for so many of us (LC included), is the most difficult part of new motherhood and that your worth is not defined by how or what you feed your baby.

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• Hilary Duff is so honest about her decision to stop breastfeeding
• ‘The Hills’ is getting a reboot—and most of the cast are now new moms
• Whitney Port on why she’s going back to ‘The Hills’ and what it’s really like to be a working mom