Teen Mom 2 fans love Chelsea Houska for more than just her tendency to make great choices. She’s a good person and a good mom.
This week, Chelsea got real on Twitter about how difficult and even impossible breastfeeding can be.
Fans flocked to her to give sympathy — and to ask for a little advice. And Chelsea had some wise words for her followers.
"I’m super proud of myself for nursing Layne for an entire year," Chelsea announced on Twitter on Tuesday, September 24.
"BUT dang…" she expressed. "It does feel good to be able to focus on getting myself back!"
"AND she’s sleeping better than ever now," Chelsea gushed.
Her tweet concluded: "lol mamas out there…I feel ya! It ain’t easy!"
Breastfeeding works better for some than for others. An entire year can be extremely draining.
"7 months in and I’m ready to give up," a follower confessed, expressing distress.
Chelsea saw that tweet and offered a thoughtful reply.
"It’s tough!" the Teen Mom 2 star affirmed to the frustrated fan.
She admitted: "I definitely had days I wanted to stop!"
"Take it day by day," Chelsea advised. That’s good advice!
But Chelsea’s very wise advice did not stop there.
"And if you truly feel like you want to be done…then be done!" she counseled.
That’s a very good point htat a lot of advice-givers might forget.
Chelsea reminded the follower: "Don’t be too hard on yourself!"
She’s already gone seven months, after all. Some parents can’t even get started on nursing. It happens.
Notably, at least one of Chelsea’s followers believed that she was shading an, ahem, unnamed castmate.
But we don’t think so.
This was a personal announcement about how accomplished she feels now that she is once again able to go about her day.
Remember, breast feeding doesn’t work like normal mealtimes, where you eat a few times a day.
Newborns and even older babies might feed a dozen times in a single day — or more.
Breastfeeding can be extremely difficult.
Mothers who were unable to breastfeed in history had to rely upon other nursing mothers or risk losing their babies.
That all changed with the invention of formula, but that too has proven to be controversial.
While breastfeeding generlaly provides the best nutrition to a baby, formula can be life-saving for babies.
And switching to formula or opting ot not breastfeed at all does not mean that the mother loves her any less than breastfeeding moms.
The "right" age to stop breastfeeding can vary wildly.
Many babies stop breastfeeding on their own accord.
(According to my own mother, I simply "became too busy" to have time for regular feedings, despite having been voracious as a newborn)
Other mothers struggle to wean their children.
Then there are, and we mean this as nicely as possible, the weird moms. The moms who breastfeed their preschool and kindergarten aged children.
Cultural, personal, and biological differences means that no one age is "right" for every family.
Good for Chelsea for sharing such positive words with fans.