Anthony ‘Lehmo’ Lehmann Says His Baby Was Starving For Four Days!

The pressure put on mums to breast feed their newborns is just enormous! It starts from the nurses in hospital who push the boob like nothing else and continues to bombard you from your maternal health care nurse, from other mums and then from every living human who has an opinion on how you should feed your baby! It’s exhausting and overwhelming!

Surprisingly, most of the judgement and pressure comes from other mums. I’ve heard stories from friends who left their mum’s group because they were shamed for giving their babies formula instead of breastfeeding them. What the actual F people! How is it anyone’s business the way a mother chooses to feed their child. You know when people should stick their noses in? When the mother ISN’T feeding their baby. If the baby is being fed- by boob or bottle- then just butt out and let them be!

When comedian Anthony ‘Lehmo’ Lehmann became a dad seven months ago he says his wife Kelly felt huge pressure to continue breast feeding their son Laddie. Lehmo says it was far from smooth sailing for the new mum who was struggling to give her baby enough milk.

“What that literature ignores is the pressure it puts on mothers who are unable to produce the milk and how that makes those mothers feel,” said Lehmo.

Kelly tried for “days and days and days” to breastfeed, but being first time parents, the couple weren’t sure if it was working.

“After four days, we weighed our son again and he’d lost a third of his body weight,” reveals Lehmo.

“And then Kel tried a pump and no milk was coming out so we hadn’t fed him for four days. How do you think my wife felt? She’s going: ‘I’m starving my baby’.”

Kelly felt she should continue breastfeeding (even though she clearly wasn’t producing enough milk) simply because she was made to feel that was the ‘right’ thing to do. Afraid of being seen as a failure or shamed for stopping, Kelly persevered.

“Don’t judge other people for the choices that they’ve made, for whatever reason that might be,” Lehmo’s co-host Jo Stanley said.

The radio hosts then discussed the misinformation that is spread about the ‘ridiculous’ list of health issues it’s believed children and subsequently adults suffer from if they’re not breastfed.

“I was not breastfed,” says Jo. “My mum was not able to breastfeed, she was very unwell. I don’t have any of the issues they talk about here… I have zero allergies… I don’t have diabetes – not yet!”

Lehmo went on to say that the message for feeding your baby should be a much simpler one.

“Just feed your baby, that should be the number one guideline over and above everything else,” he says.

Do you agree?

Photos: Instagram