Nigerian media personality and former OAP Toke Makinwa has revealed why she stopped breastfeeding.

[Augusta]

Nigerian media personality and former OAP Toke Makinwa has revealed why she stopped breastfeeding.

In August the former OAP had welcomed her first child, a baby girl, named Yakira Eliana at 40.


On her Snapchat page, a fan had inquired about why she stopped breastfeeding, and the media personality responded, letting the fan know that her breast milk output had stopped after three weeks.

The fan wrote, “Why aren’t you breastfeeding?

Toke responded: “Cos my breast milk output stopped after 3 weeks. Any other question??”.

Celebrating her daughter as she returned one-month-old, Toke described the past month as unbelievable, appreciating her mini-me for choosing her, and promising to do her best.

 

[gwolf666]

It's inevitable that news like this, which touches on such profound topics as late motherhood and baby feeding, becomes the focus of forum conversations. My first thought upon reading Toke Makinwa's response about her milk drying up after three weeks, is the immense amount of pressure she must be under. She's a public figure who just had her first child at age 40, and instead of receiving support and congratulations, she's being questioned about the function of her body. It's absolutely exhausting.

Personally, I find her response a bit defensive, but completely justified. It's a case of "enough is enough" to the intrusion into one of the most intimate decisions or realities of parenting. People need to understand that breastfeeding is a choice, and it doesn't always work out the way you expect. Biologically, there are so many factors that influence milk production: stress, medications, health conditions, and sometimes the body simply decides otherwise. Demanding that a mother justify to an anonymous audience why she couldn't or wouldn't continue breastfeeding strikes me as a modern and unnecessary form of harassment, or at the very least, a lack of respect for privacy.

What's truly important about this story is that Toke has a healthy baby, Yakira Eliana, and that they're both doing well. The rest of the feeding decisions are up to her and her doctor, not those curious on social media. We should focus on celebrating her living this incredible life, regardless of how she chooses to feed her daughter. The myth of the "perfect mother" is damaging, and we need more voices like hers to break it, even if her retort sounds a bit dry.

 

[Augusta]

Yeah some people have low or shortage of breast milk after delivery. So it is not abnormal to me

 

[eLdavis]

This is completely normal from my understanding. There are some that the milk even stops flowing earlier than this.