Ashley Graham Remains Firm With Decision to Stop Breastfeeding Twins Amid Backlash From Other Parents

The American model defends her decision to stop breastfeeding her twins despite negative responses and opinions from the public.

Ashley Graham guested Tuesday on an episode of The Daily Show and admitted to guest host Chelsea Handler that she was no longer breastfeeding her twin boys, Malachi and Roman, who are now 13 months old.

"There's this whole thing with people telling you how to feed your child. With my first kid, I was like, 'I could only breastfeed. This is the right way. Then I had the twins, and I was like, 'I'm not doing this.' This is not working here. Both of you want both of [my breasts]. This is a lot of work," the mom of three honestly expressed.

'No one size' in parenting and feeding babies

The model and her husband, Justin Ervin, share three-year-old son Isaac and the twins.

Last year, Graham took to Instagram to express how she was tired of breastfeeding the twins while posting a selfie photo of herself and the twins busy sucking each of her breasts.

She also noted in that same year how she would give herself six months to breastfeed her twins but would certainly check in mentally and emotionally with herself.

Five months later, she further revealed in her interview with Handler that she stopped breastfeeding the twins when they turned five months old and decided to feed them the "best formula" she could find in America, at the same time reminding herself that she was not failing as a mother because they opted for formula.

She shared how the little ones are "so strong and so happy," a confirmation that people should put an end to assuming that they have all the right to tell other parents and mothers how to feed their children.

Graham stressed that people should wake up and realize that there is "no one size" in parenting, specifically feeding the babies. She even stated that she would champion all kinds of representation regarding this matter, like how she championed representing different body types in fashion and the media.

Read also: Ashley Graham Is Trying to Help New Moms

Challenging breastfeeding journey

The model had always been transparent about the challenges in her breastfeeding journey with the twins, which is different from that of her first child.

She thought it would be as easy as the first and assumed she could breastfeed without thinking about it. However, she was mistaken when she realized she needed to figure out how the baby boys should be able to breastfeed at the same time, or it would mean she would not have time for anything else.

She shared that she eventually found the perfect "tandem feed" position, but it did not come easy. It took her weeks of trial and error and a volume of tears until the two could latch consistently at the same time, People reported.

The 35-year-old supermodel is the first ever mother to grace a historic billboard for the brand Bobbie that showed the possibility of combo feeding babies with breastmilk and formula.

Related Article: Ashley Graham Changed Her Baby's Diaper in the Most Unexpected Place