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I think you should go for it. You are a reasonable person and I doubt you will word it in a controversial or isolating way. You did a great job! No shame in expressing your positive feelings.
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A celebratory BF post would get a like. A preachy BF post would get an eyeroll. Multiple posts of either would get an unfollow
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I am totally happy about more public posting about breastfeeding! Except if they put down formula and will make moms who cannot breastfeed feel guilty!
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I personally think its one thing to support breastfeeding, I did it myself for 22 months, but its another thing to splash ones boobies all over Instagram. Not my cuppa tea!
I breastfed, it worked for me and my family, I did it wherever and whenever I needed to - I didn't need an entire society to support me nor did I need to share it with the world. My body, my business.
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Honestly, I give those kind of posts an eye roll, but I know that my own issues are wrapped up in that so it's not like I'd hold it against someone in the way I would if they wrote a really sanctimonious post about "not a drop of formula!!!" I just feel like, okay, you fed your baby in the way that worked best for you so... congrats? You never see someone posting "I formula fed my baby for a year! What an accomplishment!" (Even though sometimes that IS an accomplishment - that you wrestled with all of the emotional stuff that comes when you tried to breastfeed and were unable.) You know? It's definitely not the worst thing in the world or particularly offensive, but it is something that makes me feel like, "okaaaay..."
Slightly off topic, but I'm disturbed that anyone feels like new articles/research providing a realistic, fact-based view of EBF are somehow "anti-breastfeeding." No one's saying anyone should or should not breastfeed, they're just saying "hey, breastmilk is not the be all, end all of infant nutrition so if you can't or don't want to breastfeed, you can stop feeling like you're dooming your child to a life of stupid, sickly obesity." You don't need to pretend that breastmilk = magical unicorn tears to support breastfeeding/normalizing public breastfeeding/fighting for better breastfeeding support with maternity leave, BF'ing education and support, etc. The actual benefits - it's a free or mostly free, balanced, portable, healthy source of nutrition for babies that confers some immune benefits and is the biological norm - are enough.
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@KatieBklyn: well said, good points! Especially about being anti bf.
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@KatieBklyn: those are good points! having done both (formula feeding and breastfeeding) the emotional toll is there with both for sure.
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I'm all for normalizing breastfeeding and I also am happy for anyone that wants to celebrate any milestones! I don't really like it when folks emphasize, "Not a drop of formula!" like @KatieBklyn said because I feel like it is indirectly shaming. But, it's not like I get my feathers ruffled - it's just not my favorite and I think you can celebrate milestones without going there.
I breastfed for 19 months but I have also posted articles about how formula is not evil because we also had to supplement with formula and I think there is a false dichotomy that if you need to use formula, you can't or shouldn't breastfeed or that your breastfeeding doesn't "count." So I have tried to reduce the stigma around that.
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