Why it’s time to bust ‘the good mother myth’ [Video]

Nancy Reddy expected to excel at new motherhood.

The graduate student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison had completed the coursework for her PhD in two years instead of the expected three, and she was accustomed to feeling like a person who was good at things.

Besides, judging by the new moms she’d observed at the farmers’ market in Madison, Wis. — expressions serene as they walked around with babies strapped to their chests — new parenthood didn’t look so bad.

But when Reddy’s newborn son arrived, he wouldn’t latch to breastfeed and spent much of each night screaming.

Instead of seeking the support of others in the same common predicament, Reddy said she isolated herself, certain she was doing something wrong.

“It seemed very clear to me that I was failing,” Reddy told Day 6 host Brent Bambury. “I hold this baby and he cries, and I can’t figure out how to comfort him.”

Looking back, Reddy said she’d absorbed …