From bleeding nipples to workplace pressure: Why many mothers abandon exclusive breastfeeding

"You start to feel like you’re not doing enough as a mother.” This feeling stayed long after Minzilet Ijai stopped breastfeeding her son two months after birth.

Like many mothers, Ijai, a mother of two, had imagined that breastfeeding would follow the advice printed in health booklets and repeated in clinics: exclusive breastfeeding for six months, followed by complementary feeding for up to two years or more.

Instead, she found herself facing a reality shaped by work, low milk supply, exhaustion, and guilt that still haunts her.

“And remember, I still had the rest of my family depending on me,” says Ijai.

This struggle reveals the often unspoken side of one of the most celebrated milestones of motherhood.

Breastfeeding is widely promoted as the best start in life, but many women discover that making it work can be physically painful, emotionally draining, and practically impossible without support, particularly for working mothers.

Also read: Every drop counts: The back-breaking labour of breastfeeding premature babies

For Ijai, the difference between her two children remains outstanding. When her first child, a daughter, was born, she was able to stay at home for a year, which was long enough to exclusively breastfeed her for six months before introducing complementary foods. However, her second child arrived under different circumstances.