Part 3 World Breastfeeding Week 2026 - Nothing about my body had changed
For weeks, I had convinced myself I just wasn’t trying hard enough.
I fed on demand. I learned everything I could about positioning and attachment. I disappeared down rabbit holes on cluster feeding, supply and demand, tongue tie, pumping and power pumping, searching for something that would explain why breastfeeding felt so much harder than everyone said it should.
I watched videos, joined breastfeeding groups and read post after post from mothers describing leaking breasts, painful engorgement and waking up soaked through breast pads.
I kept waiting for that to happen.
It never did.
Instead, I wrote:
“I know a lot about cluster feeding. I know babies can get frustrated at the breast. I’ve read so much and I’m in so many groups. I read these posts about engorgement and hard breasts, leaking and nipple pads, and I question why I’m getting none of these things.”
A few days later, I wrote this:
“We have done everything to up my supply. We have fed 24/7 for weeks. We have pumped when not feeding. We have done nothing but feed, comfort and pump. It’s not working and you’re still not settling and getting frustrated on an evening.”
I wasn’t giving up.
I was exhausting every option I knew.
Eventually, I booked appointments with two breastfeeding specialists. If I’m honest, part of me hoped they would tell me I was doing something wrong. Because if I’d got something wrong, maybe I could fix it.
Instead, they gave me something I hadn’t expected.
An explanation.
Years before becoming a mum, I’d had three breast surgeries. They explained that one breast had only around a quarter of its glandular tissue and milk ducts functioning. Both breasts had nerve damage, meaning the messages travelling from my nipples to my brain weren’t always getting through well enough to trigger an effective let-down reflex.
For the first time in weeks, I stopped asking myself what was wrong with me.
Instead, I found myself thinking:
How on earth have we got this far?
That changed everything.
Not because my milk supply suddenly increased. Not because breastfeeding became easy. But because it completely changed the way I saw myself.
Looking back, I think this year’s World Breastfeeding Week theme, Breastfeeding for a Sustainable Start in Life: Strengthen What Works, captures something important. We often think about strengthening breastfeeding in terms of techniques, education or feeding plans. Those things matter. But sometimes what strengthens a breastfeeding journey most is helping a mother understand her own story with compassion instead of self-blame.
I’d spent weeks believing my body had failed me. In reality, it had been working unbelievably hard. Despite a significant postpartum haemorrhage, major surgery years earlier, damaged ducts, reduced glandular tissue and nerve damage.
My body had still grown my daughter. It had still nourished her. It had still fed her. Maybe not in the way I’d imagined - but in a way that deserved so much more credit than I’d ever given it.
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Looking at My Body Through Different Eyes
It’s strange how quickly compassion appeared once I understood the full picture. Nothing about my body had changed overnight. The only thing that changed was my understanding of it.
As a CBT therapist, I often think about the stories our minds create when we’re trying to make sense of something difficult. We naturally fill in the gaps.
Mine filled them with self-blame. I told myself I wasn’t producing enough. That I wasn’t trying hard enough. That my body was failing.
None of those thoughts were facts. They were the explanations I’d created when I didn’t yet have all the information. Looking back, I wish someone had helped me see that sooner. Understanding doesn’t just give us answers - it gives us back our compassion.
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Choosing Formula Didn’t Mean Giving Up
Even with that new understanding, we knew something had to change. My daughter needed more milk than my body could produce on its own. That wasn’t failure - was simply our reality.
I remember writing:
“We introduced the top up for one feed during the day in the evening and sometimes a small top up after your feed in the morning and it has been amazing. Here we are at eight weeks with no bottle preference and a new addition to the journey that is working so well for us right now. I’m so proud of you Freya. I’m proud of US.”
That entry still makes me smile.
Not because everything suddenly became easy, but because something inside me had shifted. I stopped measuring success by exclusivity.
Instead, I measured it by watching my daughter grow, seeing her settled after a feed and recognising that breastfeeding didn’t have to be all or nothing.
Our journey didn’t end when we introduced formula. It simply became something different. And somewhere along the way, I started healing too.
For us, sustainability wasn’t about exclusive breastfeeding at any cost. It was about finding a way to continue breastfeeding that also protected my wellbeing, supported my recovery and met my daughter’s needs. Looking back, that was the most sustainable start we could have hoped for.
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The Support I Didn’t Realise I Had
One diary entry always stops me.
It’s only one sentence.
“We wouldn’t be at this point without Daddy and all he does for us. He is a massive part of the success for our feeding journey. What a team.”
When I think about this year’s World Breastfeeding Week theme — Breastfeeding for a Sustainable Start in Life: Strengthen What Works — I keep coming back to that sentence. Because for me, “what worked” wasn’t perfection. It wasn’t exclusive breastfeeding. It was the people who quietly made it possible for me to keep going.
Support isn’t just lactation consultants or healthcare professionals, although both can make an enormous difference. It’s also the partner who takes the baby so you can sleep. The person who quietly makes dinner without asking. The friend who listens without trying to solve everything. The healthcare professional who notices the tears before they notice the scales. The person who remembers that you’re healing too. These are the things that strengthen breastfeeding because they strengthen the mother.
Looking back, I don’t think breastfeeding is sustained because mothers simply try harder - I think it’s sustained because mothers feel held.
They feel listened to.
They feel believed.
They feel safe enough to say,
“I’m struggling.”
Without worrying that those words mean they’ve somehow failed.
If there’s one thing my breastfeeding journey taught me, it’s that strengthening what works doesn’t always mean asking mothers to do more. Sometimes it means surrounding them with enough understanding, compassion and practical support that they no longer have to carry the weight of it all alone. Because when mothers feel supported, breastfeeding is given its greatest opportunity to succeed.
Read parts 1 and 2 of this sequence here on my blog and stay tuned for parts 4 and 5.
Sophie 🍃
World Breastfeeding Week 2026 Series
Part 1 – I Thought Breastfeeding Made Me a Mother
Part 2 – When Breastfeeding Support Doesn’t Feel Supportive
Part 3 – Nothing About My Body Had Changed
Part 4 – Confidence Changed Everything
Part 5 – You Were Always Enough