Don’t mess with Nicole Curtis! The 41-year-old HGTV star took to Instagram on Monday, April 2 to slam online haters criticizing her decision to still breastfeed her nearly three-year-old son, Harper, amid her ongoing and messy custody battle with the child’s father. “I’m getting bashed on People.com for extended breastfeeding and accused of alienating a father… again. I’m posting this and I’m saying — mamas out there in similar situations, DON’T HIDE. It is one hundred percent natural to still nurse your child — your body was made for it,” she captioned a throwback photo of herself in labor.

“And if you are going [through] a pregnancy or motherhood alone — LOAD UP on good people to support you. I labored for 13+ hours and my best friend is pictured on the right rubbing my shoulders and my doula on the left,” Nicole continued. “Note, no supportive, excited father and that’s okay, but any woman who goes through this moment alone and then gets accused of ‘alienating.’ May the Dear Lord grant you grace and patience.”

“And people actually state — pump your milk and put it in a sippy cup! What? What? What??? Yeah, hey it’s a natural body function — would you tell someone to wear a catheter? So whacked out. #NormalizeBreastfeeding #BabyLedWeaning Please note — People.com posted [a story about me] and I’m getting bashed in the comments not directly by People.com — although, it would be nice to see an article cheering on moms that are in these situations,” she concluded.

Nicole’s latest Instagram update about her family comes just months after the Rehab Addict star’s ex argued their toddler “no longer needs to nurse” and sought more parenting time with Harper. According to The Blast, Shane Maguire filed Michigan court documents last fall by requesting a change to the former couple’s custody arrangement so he may see his son more often. After Nicole and Shane split several years ago, the pair was granted joint visitation of their son. But, the HGTV star fought for full custody of Harper because he was still being “exclusively breastfed.”

She previously told People, “You would think that something so natural was just an automatic right to the baby and to the mother. I don’t think courts understand basic scientific logistics of breastfeeding they see it as, just give the baby a bottle.” Nicole recently opened up about her decision to continue breastfeeding Harper. “I keep saying, it’s not like he’s seven or eight — he’s still a baby. Every single day I have to weather criticism about how my child is too old to breastfeed. But when he weans, it’s going to be his decision. I truly believe it’s the child’s choice,” she told People.

“My child nurses on demand. He’s not on a schedule because he didn’t have to be. The court just assumes I’m a refrigerator full of milk, and that’s not how the human body works. This has been the scariest part of my journey,” she added. Nicole shared that it has been difficult for her to produce enough breastmilk to supply Harper for when he lives with his dad. “I had to pay an outside licensed lactation specialist to witness me pump without results. I sat in my living room with my shirt off, hooked up in front of a stranger to document that my body did not produce enough,” she explained. Nicole was later granted access to see Harper during Shane’s visitations in order to breastfeed her son.

“He had never had a bottle before, and then all of a sudden that was his only option while he was with his dad. I had no idea that a judge could say, ‘You’re court ordered to not feed your exclusively breastfed child.’ It’s important that children have both of their parents. But [preventing] me from breastfeeding my child just so he can see the dad is not right,” Nicole continued. “I’ve always been a fighter. If something’s not right, I’m the first person to stand up. And I don’t believe that my child should have to wean because of our situation.”