Jana Kramer Opens Up About Not Breastfeeding Baby Roman & It’s Such an Empowering Take
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2024 is right around the corner, and Jana Kramer is leaving guilt about not breastfeeding behind. The One Tree Hill alum opened up about her decision to formula-feed baby Roman, who she shares with fiancé Allan Russell, and it’s such an empowering move.
During an Instagram Q&A on Friday, someone asked Kramer if she was going to breastfeed her infant, born in November. She responded, per Us Weekly, “I am not [breastfeeding] and he is perfectly happy.”
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“We are doing formula and we’re using Dr. Brown bottles. Used them with all my other babies and they loved it,” she continued, adding, “And I don’t have any shame around it like I did the last 2 times when I tried to breastfeed.”
Yes, girl! The pressure to breastfeed is intense, from the nurses at the hospital to family members, which is one major reason I decided to breastfeed my eldest son despite it not working out well for either of us. I love that she is firm and confident in her decision to ignore the haters and do what’s best for her (which is also what’s best for her baby).
In an interview on her Whine Down with Jana Kramer podcast after her son Jace, 5, was born, Kramer revealed that she felt “judged” for not breastfeeding. “I feel like I have to hide the bottle when I’m in public because people are judging me. I feel judged,” she said, per TODAY.
Jana Kramer and her fiancé Allan Russell recently welcomed their little miracle, Roman James Russell, into the world. 💕 https://t.co/pOBKAaJkVm
— SheKnows (@SheKnows) November 15, 2023
“If you don’t breast-feed, you’re shamed,” Kramer told Us Weekly in a Jan. 2019 interview, explaining that people made her feel bad when she didn’t breastfeed her daughter Jolie, now 7. (Kramer shares Jolie and Jace with ex-husband Mike Caussin.)
“I tried so hard the second time around because I didn’t want to get re-shamed,” she went on. “I had two of my girlfriends over at my house, right after Jace, trying to get milk out of my boob, and I’m just like, bawling my eyes out and Michael’s like, ‘Why are you doing this?’ And I said, ‘Because everybody’s telling me what I need to do.’”
In Jan. 2020, she shared that she actually never even wanted to breastfeed, but she did it to make her then-husband Caussin happy.
“I had no desire. I wasn’t breastfed,” said Kramer said on her Whine Down podcast, per PEOPLE. “I didn’t feel like I had to have that connection with my baby. Personally, I don’t like my nipples being touched. I don’t like it. I don’t want someone sucking on ’em.”
She added, “But it was really important to Mike so I said, ‘Okay, I’m gonna try.’ [But] my milk didn’t come in and then they wanted me to supplement and they wanted me to pump, and it was so stressful. I was just crying and I was like, ‘Oh, my gosh, my baby lost even more weight than she should’ve.’ And then my milk eventually came in but we had already made the decision to formula feed. I remember getting so much shame and so much hate.”
It’s sounds like feeding her babies has been an emotional journey for Kramer through the years, but she has finally found peace, and I am so happy for her.
These celebrity moms refuse to be shamed for using baby formula.
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