Louise Thompson feared she would be ‘judged’ for choosing not to breastfeed her baby boy following her traumatic birth.
The Made In Chelsea star, 31, was diagnosed with PTSD after suffering complications while giving birth to her first child, Leo-Hunter, with her partner Ryan Libbey, in November 2021.
Following the devastating ordeal, Louise expressed her hope of being on the road to recovery as her little one turned 15 weeks old last month, but in her latest Instagram post, she explained that she used to remove baby bottles out of Instagram shots to avoid any backlash.
‘I think it’s important to highlight these sorts of experiences in an attempt to break down the stigma attached to bottle feeding and other challenges that new parents face,’ she wrote alongside a picture of her bottle feeding her son.
‘The truth is – there are lots of women who can’t breastfeed and many of those women feel racked with guilt because of what society sees as the optimal option.
‘It’s funny I always hated the ‘breast is best’ label that was thrown around during the online NCT classes I did.’
Louise recalled doctors encouraging her to breastfeed after her first operation, but she was taking a lot of medication at the time which left her feeling ‘gross.’
She added to her 1.4million followers: ‘I was too ashamed to say no so I carried on. Then I experienced excruciating pain as my damaged uterus was contracting (and bleeding), but I was told to keep on going.
‘The funny thing is I was actually really good at it. Leo was amazing at latching and I had lots of milk, and whilst it was nice for bonding something about it just didn’t feel right.
‘Anyway it turns out I did know my body pretty well because the pain turned out to be serious and I ended up in intensive care where I lost my milk anyway. Sometimes people should accept that we know our own bodies best.
‘There isn’t always a one size fits all policy when it comes to health (or raising a child for that matter). So you do you.’
The influencer has been sharing regular updates of her journey online and her fiancé Ryan detailed their little one’s teething experience.
He told his followers: ’16 weeks on and just when I thought things were normalising and settling in this house, the teething begins…
‘The reason I want to talk about this, is because in my opinion, this is yet another thing parents seem to not share, or talk about, or give any kind of heads up or warning about.’
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