Mandy Moore says breastfeeding her son has been a “rewarding experience”.
Mandy Moore
The ‘This Is Us’ star welcomed her son Gus into the world in February, and on Thursday (05.08.21) she marked National Breastfeeding Week by opening up on her experience with feeding her son for the past six months.
Mandy – who has Gus with her husband Taylor Goldsmith – said the process has been tough at times, but insisted she wouldn’t change it for the world.
Alongside several photos of her breastfeeding, Mandy wrote: “Breastfeeding is not always smooth sailing (clogged ducts, timing life around feedings, pumping for when I’m at work, etc… ) but nursing this baby boy for the past nearly 6 months has been a beautiful, messy and an oh so rewarding experience I will treasure forever.
“It goes without saying that #fedisbest and I’m grateful to my body and the tremendous support I’ve had around me (especially in the beginning days and weeks when I had no clue what I was doing) for allowing me this time to nourish my sweet guy. (sic)”
Meanwhile, the 37-year-old actress recently said becoming a first-time mother during the COVID-19 pandemic has been “strangely isolating”, because she hasn’t been able to “connect” with other mothers.
She explained: "It's strange because you're with someone every day and every second, and you know, I'm very lucky, I have a very supportive partner - my husband's been fantastic - but it still is so strangely isolating.
“I guess when I imagined motherhood, I sort of imagined like, you find community and there are classes, and you go to 'mommy and me' classes and baby classes.
“It's having to reframe these expectations that you've had about what it's like to be a mom and what it's like to connect with people. The isolation is something that's really hit me that I wasn't necessarily expecting.”
Mandy also revealed she experienced emotions of “not feeling good enough” to be a mother, and thought she was “ineffective” in comparison to her husband.
She added: “I felt this rush of, 'I'm not good enough for him.' I don't know how to be his mom. I know how to feed him, but beyond that, am I suited for this?' I just felt so ineffective, and I would look at my husband, who just seemed to have a supernatural ability to take care of Gus.
"Like, he could make him smile, he could make him laugh. He would get on the floor and roll around with him. And I just felt like whatever I did just wasn't right, and I couldn't get him to sleep, and it made me feel horrible."
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