Fine had always known she wanted to breastfeed. What she hadn’t expected was how much she would also need her freedom.
After a long pregnancy journey, becoming a mother was everything she had hoped for. But she also knew that she wanted to find a way to keep some of the life she had before - to see friends, go to Pride and Smukfest, and let the people closest to her become part of her daughter’s life.
For Fine, introducing a bottle early was never about choosing between breastfeeding and bottle feeding. It was about making room for both.
Fine always knew she wanted to breastfeed - she just didn’t know what it would actually be like.
Fine: “I had always known that I wanted to breastfeed, but I hadn’t really thought that much about how it would actually work. Right after the birth, that was when I really started thinking, okay, now I’m going to breastfeed. They helped me get started, and it actually worked quite well, but we didn’t get that much help in the beginning. You’re just lying there with this tiny baby, not really knowing what you’re doing, thinking, okay, I guess she’s supposed to lie there now.”
“When I got home, I found a breastfeeding expert, and she became really important to us.”
After almost two years of pregnancy, Fine was ready to have her freedom back.
Fine: “I always wanted to breastfeed until she was around six months, but I also knew that I needed some freedom back. I had been pregnant for almost two years. So by the time I had my daughter, I was honestly very ready to have some of my old life back.”
“I also knew that it was important to me that my mum could look after her. She was already taking care of her when she was only two and a half months old, and she even stayed overnight. So I knew from the beginning that the bottle needed to be part of our lives.”
Her breastfeeding expert was the one who told her: these are the bottles for you.
Fine: “I had already seen Caramma on Instagram, so I knew about it. And because it was Danish, I think I trusted it a little more. But it was actually my breastfeeding expert who recommended it. She told me that if I wanted to continue breastfeeding, these were the bottles she would choose because there was a better chance that my daughter would accept the bottle without suddenly preferring it to breastfeeding.”
“So I bought them from the beginning. I didn’t really look at anything else. I just felt that these were the bottles for us.”
A bottle could still feel soft, close and familiar - not like a completely different way of feeding.
Fine: “I really liked how soft it was. When you’re sitting there with such a tiny baby and it’s your first child, there’s something reassuring about being able to hold the bottle almost like you hold the baby. And because I was breastfeeding at the same time, the closeness felt very natural.”
“I also really liked the way she drank from the bottle. My breastfeeding expert showed me how she needed to create the vacuum, which was similar to what she was learning when breastfeeding. So in a way, using the bottle also supported what we were already doing with breastfeeding. That made a lot of sense to me.”
“And she loved it. She still does.”
The bottle didn’t just give Fine freedom. It gave her daughter’s dad a way to become part of feeding, too.
Fine: “He had been looking forward to becoming a dad so much, and I think it meant a lot to him to be able to sit with this tiny baby and feed her himself. Especially when they’re that small, there’s such a special closeness in feeding. They lie there looking into your eyes, and you really feel that connection.”
“He loved it. He would put the nursing pillow on, lay her down and feed her, and he really felt like he was the main feeder. It wasn’t only me who could give her what she needed.”
For Fine, freedom meant being able to leave the house - and still feel like herself.
Fine: “It gave me freedom. Not because I wanted to get away from my baby, but because I wanted to still be myself. I’ve always been very social and I love going to parties. I went to Pride, I went to Smukfest, and those things were important to me. I didn’t want becoming a mother to mean that part of me disappeared.”
“It also meant that my mum could become a really important part of my daughter’s life.”
For her mother, being able to feed her granddaughter meant becoming part of her life from the very beginning.
Grandmother: “For Fine, it was very important that I could be there from the beginning and that we could become close. She didn’t want me to be someone who only came in between. So we just tried it. I said, let’s see how it goes, and if she gets upset, I’ll call you.”
“But it went really well. I gave her the bottle during the night, and it was actually very easy. The bottle is soft and comfortable to hold, and there was something very cosy about feeding her that way.”
“I have twin boys who are 25 now, so the last time I used a baby bottle was a long time ago. I remember trying all sorts of different teats and materials, but this felt very different. It was soft, it was easy, and it just worked.”
Whether at home, in bed or at a café in Copenhagen, feeding could happen wherever they were.
Grandmother: “We both sit and lie down. At night or early in the morning, we might lie down together, but now that she’s bigger, we can really do it anywhere. In the pram, at a café, sitting up - yesterday we were sitting at Kongens Nytorv and she was having a bottle.”
“I like that you don’t have to put her in one specific position. You can just follow her. And she doesn’t gulp the way I remember from the old bottles. It feels much calmer.”
Breastfeeding ended earlier than Fine had planned - but it still felt like the right time.
Fine: “I had originally thought I would breastfeed until she was six months, but she stopped wanting it when she was four months. She seemed more interested in food and the bottle, so it happened quite naturally.”
“I think there’s a strange pressure around stopping breastfeeding. You almost feel like you’re supposed to be sad about it. But for me, it felt like her choice, and that actually made it quite easy to accept.”
In the end, Fine learned that motherhood didn’t have to mean giving up the person she was before.
Fine: “I think I’ve learned that you don’t have to choose between being a mother and being yourself. I wanted to breastfeed, but I also wanted my freedom. I wanted my mum to be close to my daughter, I wanted her dad to be able to feed her, and I wanted to still go out and see my friends. For me, the bottle made room for all of those things.”
“And I think that’s important. Sometimes you need someone else to take over. Not because you love your baby any less.”
And for Fine’s mother, being part of those everyday moments has become something she treasures.
Grandmother: “It has meant everything to me. I’m so grateful that Fine wanted me to be close to her from the beginning. Being able to take care of her, feed her, put her to sleep and have her stay overnight is very special.”
Fine: “My mum is such a huge part of our lives. And I think people like her are sometimes the hidden workers behind everything. They’re not on the packaging or in the pictures, but honestly, I don’t know how we would do it without them.”
At Caramma, we believe support is not about taking something away. It is about making room - for freedom, for connection, and for the people who help a family thrive.
Fine’s story is a reminder that feeding doesn’t have to be an either-or. Sometimes, the right support makes it possible to keep breastfeeding while also giving others the chance to feed, care and become part of the journey.