Emily Andre has opened up about feeling guilty when she was forced to stop breastfeeding baby Theo.
The doctor, wife of singer Peter Andre, has been talking motherhood following Millie Mackintosh’s recent candid Instagram post.
The Made In Chelsea star, 32, revealed she has stopped breastfeeding her three-month-old daughter Aurelia after she was suffering with severe mastitis.
The condition causes inflammation and can lead to an infection of breast tissue. Often, sufferers deal with bad pain as well as swelling, warmth and redness of the area.
Emily praised how open Millie has been in her latest OK! Magazine column.
She spoke of her own experience and says it was tough when Theo, now five, was young and her milk just ran out.
Emily says things can be challenging and normalising the situation will be so helpful for other mums across the world.
She wrote: "I really loved the honesty of Millie Mackintosh’s recent Instagram post, which saw her opening up about stopping breastfeeding her three-month-old daughter Aurelia after experiencing painful mastitis.
"I had mastitis a few times when breastfeeding Theo and it was difficult. I felt very unwell as I had a high temperature and lots of pain.
"When I did stop breastfeeding I did feel an element of guilt, as well as sadness as I enjoyed breastfeeding so much.
"It gave me such a close bond with both babies and I just didn’t want that to end. But unfortunately my milk ran out, so I didn’t have a choice.
"Once I’d stopped, I felt less upset and was able to feel proud of what I had achieved."
In the lengthy post, Millie told her 1.4 million followers how her breastfeeding journey had come to an end, bringing about mixed feelings.
She admitted that every time she tried to feed her daughter she was left "crying in pain".
Millie wrote: "I really felt the pressure during my first round of mastitis to continue feeding. After mentioning it on social media I was flooded with messages and although there was a lot of support with people sharing different remedies that could help, I really felt the pressure to just keep going even though I was literally crying in pain every time I needed to feed.
"There was one comment that really stuck with me, ‘it’s ok to stop too, it doesn’t make you a bad mum’ at the time I really needed to hear that."
She opened up on trying to combi feed, but revealed she once again had to stop when the pain became unbearable.
She continued: "Now Aurelia is purely on formula, at first there was a bit of resistance whilst we found the right bottle and teat size, but now she is feeding well and we’re getting into a good routine.
"I still love the time spent feeding her, she clutches my fingers, pulls me close and stares into my eyes, I still feel just as important to her."
To read Emily's OK! column, click here.
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