Breastfeeding Awareness Week: Myths, Facts, and Support for Every Feeding Journey
Written by: Virginia Kuhn LPC
Each year, World Breastfeeding Week is recognized August 1–7, and August is also recognized as National Breastfeeding Month in the United States. These observances bring attention to the benefits of breastfeeding and the importance of creating healthcare, workplace, family, and community systems that support parents who choose to breastfeed.
The 2026 World Breastfeeding Week theme, “Breastfeeding for a Sustainable Start in Life: Strengthen What Works,” emphasizes building on approaches that have been shown to improve breastfeeding outcomes, including skilled counseling, supportive healthcare practices, paid maternity leave, and workplace accommodations.
Breastfeeding can provide health benefits for both babies and lactating parents. It can also be physically demanding, emotionally complicated, and affected by circumstances outside a parent’s control. Recognizing its benefits should never require minimizing the challenges or shaming families whose feeding journeys look different from what they originally planned.
Common Myths and Facts About Breastfeeding
Myth: Breastfeeding should come naturally.
Fact: Breastfeeding is a learning process for both the parent and the baby.
Babies learn how to latch, suck, and swallow, while parents learn positioning, feeding cues, milk-supply management, and breast care. Some families adjust quickly, while others experience challenges that require time and specialized support. Difficulty breastfeeding does not mean that a parent is doing something wrong.
Myth: Breastfeeding is supposed to hurt.
Fact: Some early tenderness may occur, but persistent or significant pain should not be dismissed as normal.
Ongoing pain may be related to difficulties with the baby’s latch, damaged skin, a plugged duct, mastitis, or another concern. Pain that does not improve—or pain accompanied by symptoms such as a fever—should be discussed with a medical provider or lactation professional.
Myth: Frequent feeding always means the parent is not producing enough milk.
Fact: Newborns commonly breastfeed frequently.
Many newborns breastfeed approximately 8–12 times within a 24-hour period. Feeding patterns can vary, and some sessions may be longer or shorter than others. Milk intake is evaluated using several factors, including swallowing, diaper output, weight gain, feeding effectiveness, and the baby’s overall health—not feeding frequency alone. Concerns about milk supply or infant growth should be evaluated by the baby’s healthcare provider or a qualified lactation professional.
Myth: Breast size determines whether someone can breastfeed.
Fact: For most people, breast size and shape do not determine milk production or the ability to breastfeed.
Individual medical factors, previous breast surgery, hormonal conditions, milk removal, infant health, and other circumstances may affect milk production. However, having smaller, larger, differently shaped, or uneven breasts does not automatically prevent breastfeeding.
Myth: A breastfeeding parent cannot take medication.
Fact: Many medications are compatible with breastfeeding.
Some medications pass into breast milk, but most are not known to negatively affect milk production or infant well-being. A healthcare provider should evaluate the specific medication, dosage, the baby’s age and health, and the risks of leaving the parent’s condition untreated. Speak to your healthcare provider if you have questions about medication use while breastfeeding.
Myth: A parent experiencing postpartum depression must stop breastfeeding.
Fact: Parents experiencing postpartum depression can usually continue breastfeeding if they want to.
Mental health treatment and breastfeeding are not necessarily incompatible. Therapy, social support, and appropriately selected medications may all be considered as part of care. A medical or mental health professional can help the parent evaluate treatment options while considering both their well-being and their feeding goals.
Myth: Breastfeeding is only beneficial for the baby.
Fact: Breastfeeding is associated with health benefits for both babies and lactating parents.
For babies, breastfeeding is associated with a reduced risk of certain respiratory and gastrointestinal infections, ear infections, asthma, obesity, and sudden infant death syndrome. For lactating parents, breastfeeding is associated with a lower risk of high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, ovarian cancer, and breast cancer. These benefits describe population-level associations and do not determine the health of an individual parent or baby.
Myth: Breastfeeding success has only one definition.
Fact: Feeding journeys vary widely.
Some parents breastfeed exclusively, while others pump, supplement, combination feed, use donor milk, transition to formula, or stop breastfeeding earlier than expected. Medical concerns, milk production, work demands, sleep, trauma history, finances, family support, personal preference, and mental health can all affect feeding decisions.
Breastfeeding is not a measure of love, attachment, or parenting ability. The U.S. Office on Women’s Health emphasizes that the decision to breastfeed is personal and that parents deserve support regardless of how they feed their babies.
Myth: Breastfeeding outcomes depend only on how hard a parent tries.
Fact: Breastfeeding is affected by more than individual effort.
Access to lactation care, parental leave, workplace accommodations, healthcare practices, family support, financial resources, and cultural attitudes can all influence whether someone is able to meet their breastfeeding goals. Framing every difficulty as a failure of persistence overlooks the systems and circumstances surrounding each family.
The purpose of breastfeeding awareness should not be to place additional pressure on parents. It should include improving access to accurate information, skilled assistance, protected time, and compassionate support.
Breastfeeding and Emotional Well-Being
Breastfeeding can be comforting and meaningful for some parents. For others, it may be connected with pain, exhaustion, anxiety, intrusive thoughts, loss of bodily autonomy, grief, or disappointment when feeding does not go as planned. Some parents experience a mixture of these emotions.
There is no single “correct” emotional response to breastfeeding. A parent may value breastfeeding and still find it difficult. They may decide to change their feeding plan and still grieve that change. They may also feel relief after transitioning away from breastfeeding.
Mental health support can provide a nonjudgmental space to process these experiences without pressuring a parent toward a particular feeding decision.
Supporting Families Without Shame
Meaningful breastfeeding support respects both evidence and individual circumstances. Families benefit from accurate information, access to qualified medical and lactation care, and the freedom to make informed decisions without guilt or judgment.
During Breastfeeding Awareness Week, we can recognize the benefits of breastfeeding while also honoring the complexity of infant feeding. Supporting parents means caring about the baby’s health, the parent’s health, and the well-being of the family as a whole.
Perinatal Mental Health Support at Bloom & Breathe Therapy
Bloom & Breathe Therapy provides compassionate, evidence-based mental health care for individuals navigating pregnancy, postpartum adjustment, anxiety, depression, OCD, trauma, infertility, loss, and other perinatal experiences.
We offer in-person therapy at our offices in Mesa, Arizona, and Lander, Wyoming, as well as secure telehealth appointments for clients located in Arizona, Wyoming, Missouri, and Idaho. Availability and services vary by therapist.
If feeding concerns are affecting your emotional well-being, our team can provide a supportive space to explore your experience without judgment.
This article is intended for educational purposes only. It does not establish a therapist-client relationship or replace individualized medical, lactation, or mental health care. Contact a qualified healthcare provider with questions about your health, medications, milk supply, or your baby’s feeding and growth.