Jeannie Mai shared her “difficult” breastfeeding experience after welcoming her first child with rapper Jeezy.
“Breastfeeding is even more difficult than giving birth,” she said.
“The Real” co-host shared her journey with fans on her YouTube series Hello Hunnay. She said she struggled to produce milk for her daughter, Monaco.
“For the past three months, I’ve been by myself with my own little thoughts, trying my hardest to get any squeeze of milk possible out of my breasts,” she said in an episode on May 19.
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“I’ve had nobody to talk about it so you’re welcome. Welcome to the party.”
Jeannie recalled the moment after Monaco was born. A nurse placed the newborn’s face under her breast and the baby instinctively latched on.
“I saw Monaco’s poor little face and she just started doing the thing. That was why I felt I need to breastfeed. I didn’t feel like I had an option. I just felt like this is what you do.”
However, Jeannie’s mammary glands weren’t producing milk for the hungry newborn.
In a panic, she took vitamins, drank tea, chewed gummies and tried again to pump milk, but she only produced an ounce of milk.
“It was really, really, really upsetting,” she said. “You feel so defeated when your baby’s hungry. You’re not producing enough for the baby. You’re seeing all these commercials and other women and even Instagram showing these amazing pictures of moms bonding with their kids breastfeeding.”
Jeannie said she discovered a breastfeeding pump that helped her produce breast milk for her baby.
“This is the first time I get to connect with moms,” she said. “I really just want to hear so much from everybody out there and I have so much to learn.”
