Giselle Bundchen sticks her foot in her mouth

When I first heard that Giselle Bundchen had stated that there should be a law forcing moms to breastfeed their kids for 6 months, I thought it was a joke. I thought, that can't be right. What a ridiculous statement. Well, the joke was on me as she did in fact say this. And the kicker is apparently she only breastfed for 3 weeks. So I guess she should be arrested?

Where do I start with this unfair and ridiculous statement! To pass a law telling women what they can or cannot do with their body is something I don't agree with. When it comes to breastfeeding, there is enough guilt projected onto moms from nurses, friends, family and other moms that adding the government into the mix is just ridiculous. Obviously someone didn't think before she spoke.

I breastfed both my girls for just under a year. I was fully prepared to breastfeed my first baby. The idea of formula never even entered my mind. I was blissfully unaware of the difficulties some women have with breastfeeding and I found out the hard way that I would be one of these women. I persevered through a lot of stress and emotions but was lucky enough to end up with a positive breastfeeding experience. However, I still remember how difficult it was at the beginning while I was waiting for my milk to come in and Ainsley kept dropping weight.

I know a number of moms who had even more difficult experiences and were not able to breastfeed. I have a friend who's failure at breastfeeding affected her ability to bond with her baby and added to her post-partum depression. Statements like the one Gisele made just adds to the idea that you are not a good mom unless you breastfeed your baby. Your goal as a mom is to keep your baby healthy and do what's best for him or her. If that means formula because you are struggling with breastfeeding, your baby is not latching or for any other reason, that should be ok.

Every woman should have the individual right to do what's best for them and their baby. You will never know what another mom's situation is as you are not living their life. It is so important for moms to be supportive of one another as being a mom is tough. We have to stop beating each other up about the choices we make and realize the only choices we need to be worried about are our own.

I would love to hear your thoughts on Giselle's statement.

Toronto Hospitals push for breastfeeding

I am all for breastfeeding. I breastfed both my girls for at least 10 months of each of their lives. I am happy that I was able to have successful breastfeeding relationships with both of them. However, they were not easy to establish.

I have been reading the recent articles about the push in Toronto hospitals for breastfeeding as statistics say that most new moms are not breastfeeding their babies exclusively 6 months after their child's birth. While I think that breastfeeding should be encouraged in the hospital and that breastfeeding clinics are wonderful if they are able to provide support to moms; what I find objectionable is the militant approach suggested by some doctors to stop providing formula in the hospital.

I truly believe that if formula had not been available to me with my daughters, instead of a successful breastfeeding relationship, I would have given up and not had one at all. I had a c-section with Ainsley after 12 hours of labour and pushing and oodles of drugs. My milk did not come in for 4 days. Ainsley was a hungry baby and started losing weight. She had lost 10% of her weight before the hospital finally suggested I supplement with formula.

I had never considered formula at all and took it for granted that I would breastfeed. However, my daughter was hungry, losing weight and I felt like a failure. The supplementation with formula bought my body the time to catch up and produce milk. I found the whole breastfeeding process up to this point very stressful and to be able to feed my child and satisfy her hunger with formula enabled me to relax and take the time to learn to breastfeed properly.

I feel uncomfortable with nurses and doctors taking formula out of the equation all together as it is sometimes necessary. It can be helpful and ultimately, the health of your baby is most important. Ironically, after the initial 2 weeks of formula Ainsley drank, she refused to drink formula after that and we exclusively breast fed until we started solids. With Juliet, I gave her one bottle of formula a day while breastfeeding the remaining feeds. This one bottle gave me a little break and I breastfed her until 11 1/2 months.

Breastfeeding was not easy for me when I started and it was discouraging at times. There is a lot of pressure on moms to get it right. I think some of this pressure needs to be taken off of moms and it should be ok to tell them that breastfeeding is not always easy, you sometimes have to work for it, but that it is ok if you struggle because there is support out there. The key is education and making the support available.

I welcome your comments about your own experiences with breastfeeding as almost every mom I know has had some sort of difficulty.