Jana Kramer gave birth to son Jace on Nov. 29, and the country singer recently that she had decided to stop breastfeeding her newborn.
On a new episode of her podcast, Whine Down With Jana Kramer, the country singer opened up about the reactions she’s experienced after sharing her decision, revealing that she feels “judged.”
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“I’ve had so many people reach out to me on DMs … it’s been really great, but it also [is] just really frustrating,” she said.
“It’s just frustrating when women [are told] breast milk is the best. I understand that — [they] don’t need to tell me something that I [already] know,” she continued. “But I also don’t need to explain to [them] why it’s either not working or we’re not doing it or we chose not to. I don’t know why we feel like we have to explain.”
The mom of two added that negative comments have caused her to rethink any plans for sharing photos of her son as he’s being bottle fed.
“I feel like I have to hide the bottle when I’m in public because people are judging me,” she said. “I feel judged.”
Kramer’s husband, Mike Caussin, also participated in the podcast and explained that he and Kramer should be the only ones who care about whether or not their child is being breastfed.
“I get why [people ask] because that’s the way humans have done it for so long, so anything other than the way you’re biologically created to feed your child, I can see why it’s still a lasting stigma,” he said. “I actually don’t even think we should or need to [explain] because then it’s like you feel like you have to defend why we’re not. We’re the only two people that matter in this entire situation.”
Kramer previously opened up about her decision to stop breastfeeding Jace while speaking to Us Weekly, explaining that she attempted to breastfeed Jace when he was born, but it ultimately didn’t work out.
“People have questioned if I’m breast-feeding,” she said. “If you don’t breastfeed, you’re shamed.”
The 35-year-old admitted that she had wanted to breastfeed Jace after she was shamed for not doing so with her 3-year-old daughter, Jolie.
“I tried so hard the second time around because I didn’t want to get re-shamed,” she said. “I had two of my girlfriends over at my house, right after Jace, trying to get milk out of my boob, and I’m just like, bawling my eyes out and Michael’s like, ‘Why are you doing this?’ And I said, ‘Because everybody’s telling me what I need to do.’”
“My girlfriends were pressing on my boob trying to get milk out,” she continued. “So I was like, ‘OK. I’m stopping. I’m done.’”
Photo Credit: Getty / Robyn Beck
