It's Easy To Relate To Whitney Port's 'Painful' Experience With Breastfeeding

The former “Hills” star says she was ridden with guilt and anxiety when she decided to stop nursing her son at two weeks old

Whitney Port knows all too well the mental and physical toll breastfeeding can take on a new mom’s body.

The Hills alum and mom to 4-year-old Sonny with husband Tim Rosenman opened up about her personal journey with breastfeeding on People’s Me Becoming Mom podcast this week, saying the pressure she felt to nurse her baby was all encompassing.

“I stopped breastfeeding after two weeks because it was just too hard for me, it was just too painful,” Port told host Zoë Ruderman, sharing that her “nipples were already chafed and dry and bloody” when she arrived home from the hospital. “The pumping seemed to be easier for me and I was able to get enough milk to feed him exclusively with breastmilk for six months.”

But those six months are now “a complete blur” to Port, who admits she was ridden with anxiety over how she was feeding Sonny. Like a lot of moms who hear the phrase “breast is best,” the now 36-year-old felt an immense amount of pressure to continue pumping despite it affecting her physical and mental health.

“I was just so focused on getting through the pumping, the breastfeeding, the whole job of it, also getting mastitis three times,” the fashion designer and author said of the painful breast tissue infection that can occur due to clogged milk ducts. “It was a mess, it was a total mess.”

Port, who recently opened up about her history with miscarriages, said that if she does have another child, she will try to enjoy every moment rather than put pressure on herself to continue breastfeeding.

“The plan is if I start to feel those feelings again, where I feel overcome by it and I’m not able to enjoy having a newborn, and I’m not happy and I know specifically I’m not happy because of this, to just really listen to that and not let the guilt override those feelings,” she said.

It’s nice to hear Port is giving herself grace as she cares not only for her child but herself. As moms everywhere know, we can only do our best.