'Boy Meets World's' Danielle Fishel Opens Up On Experiencing 'Mom Guilt'

The phrase “mothers know best” will remain a steadfast and enduring motivation. Sometimes, however, things might go sideways.

Boy Meets World star Danielle Fishel revealed in an essay for Good Morning America that she had “mom guilt” after learning that her son, Adler, almost died because of her breast milk. ABC News said that Adler was born four weeks earlier and doctors found that the premature baby had complications.

Fishel said that she went to labor more than four weeks early and later discovered that her son had fluids on his chest cavity.

For three weeks, Adler remained in the neonatal intensive care unit of the Children's Hospital Los Angeles. He was “given a feeding tube” immediately after he was delivered.

“We feel [helpless] and powerless and useless,” said Fishel as she described her Jensen Karp's feeling of not being able to hold their baby, especially during this time.

“We wanted so badly to follow our 'birth plan,' unsurprisingly none of which involved leaving our beautiful baby boy at the hospital for the first weeks of his life.”

When Adler was discharged from the hospital, doctors recommended him to be put under formula instead of breast milk. Things started to change when Adler began to drink Fishel's milk in August.

Their joy proved to be short-lived when Adler's X-ray revealed that the fluid in his lungs had come back. They immediately stopped giving him breast milk and went back to MCT formula.

New York Post reported that Fishel blamed himself for Adler's situation. “Why is my milk hurting my child? Is my baby allergic to me?” she questioned.

Fishel also admitted that she was an emotional wreck during the time that she could not feed Adler from her body. Questions like did they shift to breast milk too soon and how did she miss Adler's symptoms haunted the actress, but she remained strong.

It was in her darkest time that she found a new appreciation of motherhood. She said that every aspect of being a mother has a story behind it.

“None of us escape mom-guilt. It's there whether you're a stay-at-home mom or work outside the house, but there is one thing I know for certain each and every mother has in common: We are trying our absolute 100 percent of the time.”