I was scrolling through X when I stumbled upon a post that narrated a true story about the downside of exclusive breastfeeding. Prior to the disclosure of this ordeal, I never deeply understood how women can develop a phobia towards exclusive breastfeeding for various reasons. I always thought breastfeeding was a natural process with just a handful of manageable challenges.

Due to my enormous interest in black women’s maternal health issues, I began to read more testimonials about exclusive breastfeeding from black mothers online. One mother shared how she breastfed her second child for only four months. She alluded to the fact that formula literally saved her sanity, but had she not grappled with a lack of structural support, she could have breastfed longer than that.