"Mothering" magazine should be renamed "Breastfeeding Mother" magazine. More than half the images in the magazine show mom breastfeeding baby.

With no stories on the best baby formula or tips on formula-feeding, it’s a bit one-sided. It slights those of us who didn’t breastfeed. And, frankly, I’m tired of hearing “breastfeeding is best.” After a while, it makes you feel unworthy of motherhood.

Medically, I couldn’t nurse my son. And after the ordeal I went through, I’ve learned there’s more to motherhood than breastfeeding.

I breastfed for a week. On the eighth day I suffered congestive heart failure – or peripartum cardiomyopathy – a rare and deadly post-partum condition. The three medications I was prescribed would have been harmful to the baby.

A few months later, at my cousin’s wedding, I had a beer with one friend’s fiancée. She asked what I was doing, having a drink and breastfeeding.

“Nothing, I don’t breastfeed.”

A frozen-faced look of shock ensued. She and her aunt talked about how they breastfed their children and how it made them feel so close and cozy, yada, yada, yada. I walked away, steaming mad.

Sometimes I do reveal why I couldn’t breastfeed, sometimes I don’t. But breastfeeding does not automatically make you a good mother. Britney Spears breastfed.

Because of my health concerns, I can’t have more children. Future pregnancies could result in “maternal death.” That makes this opportunity to mother all the more precious.

My son is crawling now and laughs when we play with his “piggy” toes. He thinks I’m the bomb. I can’t carry a tune, but he loves when I sing to him. He loves when I tickle him and read “Goodnight Moon.”

My husband and I give him a loving and safe environment. Everything I do is for the well-being of my boy, and I’ll be damned if someone labels me a lousy mom for not breastfeeding.