I once heard an account of a Black mother whose own mother wiped her breasts with whiskey and bound them tightly, determined to dry her milk up. That mother had no intention of breastfeeding because the generational message was clear: breastfeeding was not encouraged. It was silenced. Stories like this are not rare.

A woman once told me she didn’t want her baby to get “too attached.” She explained that she had to go back to work in just a few weeks. To her, breastfeeding felt like a setup for heartbreak. The longer the baby depended on her, the harder the separation would be. Her story stayed with me. Not because she lacked love for her child, but because she was forced to make a choice no mother should have to make: between connection and survival.

I have seen moms who had unmedicated, intervention-free births walk away feeling defeated. I have also seen moms who had epidurals or cesareans describe their births as powerful and successful. That may sound strange if you have been told that the only good birth is the one that goes exactly as planned. The truth is simple...