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Hilary Duff applauded for brutal honest Instagram post about decision to quit breastfeeding

Hilary Duff has opened up about her decision to stop breastfeeding her six-month-old baby [Photo: Getty/Instagram]
Hilary Duff has opened up about her decision to stop breastfeeding her six-month-old baby [Photo: Getty/Instagram]

Hilary Duff has been praised for opening up about her breastfeeding struggles as a working mother and making the decision to quit.

Taking to Instagram the 31-year-old actress shared an image of her breastfeeding her six-month-old daughter, Banks, and in the lengthy caption detailed what contributed to the decision to stop nursing.

The mum-of-two Duff explained that she had been struggling to pump breast milk on the set of her TV show, ‘Younger’, and revealed that the stress of her milk supply dropping made her feel as though she “was going to break”.

READ MORE: Mum's photo of blue breast milk is going viral

“Last week was my last week nursing Banks (my six-month-old),” Duff, who is also mum to Luca, 6, explained.

“I am a working mum of two. My goal was to get my little girl to six months and then decide if I (and her of course) wanted to keep going.”

The mum went on to detail some of the problems she’d experienced expressing milk at work, describing how she had zero downtime on set and was often forced to pump with people around as she was getting her hair and make-up done.

“Even if I had the luxury to be in my own room, it’s not even considered a ‘break’ because you have to sit upright for the milk to flow into the bottles!” she continued.

“Plus you are having your damn nipples tugged at by an aggressive machine that makes an annoying sound, that echoes through your head day and night (I swear that machine and I had many conversations at midnight and 3 am)!”

She also described how pumping had lead to a fall in the amount of milk she was producing and that losing connection with her baby had lead to her feeling “like a failure.”

“I was going to break. With the stress of a dropping milk supply and a baby that was getting bored or not caring about nursing when I was available to," she continued.

“I was sad and frustrated and feeling like a failure all of the time. When really I’m a bad ass rock star. Mums get high on feeling like superwoman…because we are!”

In the comments section of her post Duff continued to discuss the topic explaining that she wanted to open up about her feelings in the hope it might help anyone else who was wrestling with the decision to stop breastfeeding.

Even though she had hit some lows and described feeling low after missing the oxytocin hit breastfeeding hat given her, she had finally emerged out the other side.

And she wanted to issue a reminder to all parents to remember that they are superheroes.

“Love you all and hope this helps anyone struggling!”

It certainly seemed to strike a chord with many and since sharing her post has clocked up more than 866K likes and received hundreds of comments thanking Duff for her honest and empowering message.

“You don’t know how bad I needed to read this while I BF (dog tired) at 230 am while scrolling insta,” one mum shared.

“Thank you for your post u made my day as I'm also struggling with the idea of not breastfeeding anymore,” another added.

“Reading and crying at this as I pump after work while my baby is asleep! Spot on with every emotion I am feeling right now,” yet another mother commented.

READ MORE: Father criticised online for suggesting baby formula should come out of his wife’s budget

Others took the opportunity to share Duff’s sentiments that it doesn’t matter how a baby is fed, what’s important is that he/she is fed.

“There is no one right way to feed your baby,” another commented. “I personally pump exclusively because we couldn't figure out latching. Breastfeeding is hard and a huge commitment! You gave your daughter a wonderful gift for six months and you should be incredibly proud!”

Hilary isn’t the first celebrity to open up about her decision to stop breastfeeding.

Last year, in an honest interview with Time, Serena Williams discussed her feelings on the difficult decision to stop breastfeeding, after being told by her male coach it would help improve her game.

The tennis star discussed her decision to nurse her daughter for her first eight months, despite believing it may have hindered her return to peak physical form.

But when she resumed her clay-court training in France, her coach, Patrick Mouratoglou, suggested it could be time to stop breastfeeding. Advice, that Serena was unhappy with at first.

“It’s absolutely hard to take from a guy,” Williams told the publication.