Jana Kramer says she “didn’t want” to breastfeed her kids, but gave it a try as it was “really important” to her husband.
On a recent episode of Kramer’s “Whine Down” podcast, the country music star opened up about her hesitation to nurse her children Jolie, almost 4, and Jace, 13 months, who she shares with her husband Mike Caussin.
Although Kramer said she had “no desire” to breastfeed Jolie when she was a baby, she gave it a shot.
“I wasn’t breastfed,” she said. “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.”
“But it was really important to Mike so I said, ‘Okay, I’m gonna try,'” she continued. “[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.'”
The “One Tree Hill” alum said her milk “eventually came in” but she and her husband had “already made the decision” to feed Jolie formula. Kramer recalled receiving a lot of backlash over her choice. “I remember getting so much shame and so much hate,” she said.
As a result of Kramer’s reaction to breastfeeding, the couple decided against nursing Jace. However, he got sick shortly after he was born, making her question their decision.
“He got [Respiratory Syncytial Virus] when he was just a couple weeks old and everyone was just like, ‘Breast is best, this is how he’s not gonna get sick,’ and I was like, ‘Oh my God, they’re right. If my kid ends up getting worse, it’s because of me, because I didn’t breastfeed,'” she said.
“And so I had two of my girlfriends come over … my boobs still had the milk in ’em but they were just so engorged and just gross, so they had the pump on me,” she continued. “I literally had my friends Ashley and Julie massaging my breasts to try to get milk out, and I’m just bawling.”
“And then we’re trying to get Jace to connect [with] my nipple and I didn’t know how to do it ’cause I never breastfed, so I didn’t know how to latch it and how to do all these things,” Kramer said. “Mike walks in the room, he’s like, ‘Why are you doing this to yourself?’ And I was like, ‘Because I have to — because everyone says that he’s gonna get worse if I don’t breastfeed!'”
Fortunately, Caussin reminded her that the nurse said as long as Jace got the necessary nutrients from the formula he’s “going to be healthy one way or the other.”
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