Jeannie Mai Jenkins Says Breastfeeding Made Her ‘Depressed’ & Was Harder Than Giving Birth

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Jeannie Mai Jenkins
Jeannie Mai Jenkins via Instagram/YouTube

To most fans, Jeannie Mai Jenkins is known for her bubbly personality and instant likability. (After all, the celebrity stylist turned television anchor turned podcast and YouTube host has been entertaining people on almost every medium for years now.) But recently, the 43-year-old has been getting brutally honest about the ups and downs of motherhood after welcoming her first child earlier this year. During a newly aired episode of her YouTube series, Hello Hunnay, Jeannie confessed that her breastfeeding journey was less than ideal — in fact, it left her feeling "really, really depressed."

'The Real' co-host welcomed her daughter, Monaco, back in January

Despite being over the moon after the arrival of her daughter, Monaco — whom she welcomed with her husband, rapper Jeezy — the new mom felt thrown into the deep end. Especially when it came to breastfeeding. (In fact, she's even said that breastfeeding was "more difficult than giving birth.")

For starters, her milk supply was seriously low, and no matter what she did to boost it, nothing seemed to work.

"All I was doing around the clock — even through my sleep by the way, 24 hours a day — was trying to take my vitamins, drink my tea, chew my gummies, and pump milk," she shared. "And nothing was coming out. It was maybe about an ounce."

Inevitably, this led to a ton of stress mixed with feelings of "failure"

"This was really, really, really upsetting," said Jeannie, who said she "got really, really depressed" and "started to give up."

"You feel so defeated when your baby's hungry, and you're not producing enough for the baby," she continued. "You're seeing all these commercials and other women and even Instagram showing these amazing pictures of moms bonding with their kid and breastfeeding their babies, actually just getting really frustrated. You're reading so many different pieces of advice that aren't really just helping you see results."

At one point, Jeannie decided to stop breastfeeding altogether

But unfortunately, even that proved to be difficult.

Despite her low milk supply, the small amount of breast milk she was able to produce wound up building up inside her breasts, causing them to become seriously engorged.

"I've never experienced this type of pain," she explained, adding that the engorgement ultimately led to mastitis, which was "so, so painful."

According to the Mayo Clinic, mastitis is an inflammation of the breast tissue. That inflammation doesn't just cause breast pain, either — it can also lead to infection, swelling, warmth and redness on the breast, and even a fever and chills.

The fashion star wound up suffering from nearly all of the above

"Imagine getting punched in the boob, but instead of getting punched and they let go, it's like one big punch, and it stays there super impacted on your boob," she explained. "Then I'd have to pump in order to get the milk out, but then I'd have clogged ducts."

The entire experience impacted nearly every part of her day.

"The whole time it's throbbing like crazy," she recalled. "You literally can't even eat. It hurts so bad."

The hardest part of all, however, was feeling like she was struggling on her own.

"You can't even talk about it with anybody 'cause you don't have time to talk about it," she said. "You're supposed to be taking another vitamin, you're supposed to be trying to pump it out, or you're supposed to be feeding your baby."

"And you're supposed to try to keep calm the whole time."

Needless to say, things weren't always "calm" at home

But eventually, she got the hang of things — in her own time.

It "took my body time to actually settle in and relax and get into this," said Jeannie. "Even if it meant taking six weeks. I was stressing every day … Every day, every three hours you're reminded that it's not working for you."

Jeannie is far from alone on this one

Millions of new moms struggle with similar breastfeeding issues each year, and in many cases, it leads them to make some difficult decisions when it comes to feeding their babies.

While some are able to resolve the issues with time and patience to continue breastfeeding, others wind up supplementing with formula or switching over entirely to give their babies enough nutrients.

Though the situation is highly common, it's been making headlines lately because of the infant formula shortage, which has unfortunately sparked a new round of breast vs. bottle debates — as if moms really needed that to happen.

Over the past few weeks, formula moms have actually been forced to openly defend their feeding decisions to online trolls, who've been coming out of the woodwork to question why they can't "simply" breastfeed "as God intended."

Of course, plenty of people have been shooting down these ridiculous claims for days, which certainly seem to ignore a whole slew of situations in which breastfeeding is just not possible. (And, truth be told, Jeannie's story is just one small glimpse into why breastfeeding should never be called "simple" or "easy.")

Thankfully, Jeannie was able to relieve her pain

To do so, she consulted close friends and found herself on YouTube, learning about how to use hot compresses and hot water in the shower to heal the infection.

Now she's opening up about her own struggles in hopes that other moms out there might feel less alone, too.

"I want to hear so much from everybody out there, and I have so much to learn, so thank you for being patient with my journey," she shared. "Thank you for not judging me, because I am learning, and I am open to learning more."

Kaitlin Stanford