Masochistic Mommy

In a society where most women fail to breastfeed their newborn, having two newborns to feed simultaneously must surely spell curtains, right? Indeed, many health professionals, upon discovering their client is carrying twins, promptly and without tact suggest that she should expect the worst – and head to the nearest bottle store. Thankfully, Mother Nature doesn’t take orders from health professionals. Her production line is connected to her line manager – the baby (or babies, in this instance). From womb service to boob service, Mother Nature will satisfy her offspring’s remit – if left to her own devices, as the following story illustrates:     “When I was pregnant my doctor told me to line up donor milk from a milk bank.  I don't think she was confident that I could produce enough milk fast enough or maybe she just wanted to be thorough. Either way, it made me doubt my breastfeeding abilities before my babies were even born.    Preemie Twins My twins were b...

Who has a right to breastfeed? Mothers only? Babies only? Children of any age? Mothers and children together? Though most international human rights instruments don’t mention breastfeeding explicitly, they do offer an inkling of enlightenment, starting with: The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) which states that “everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food”;  The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (1976) , which explicitly describes “the right to health” (“the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health”), recognizes “the right of everyone to … adequate food”, and notes that steps may be needed to ensure “the fundamental right to freedom from hunger and malnutrition” (as General Comment 12 on the right to adequate food (1999) observes: “The human right to adequate food is of crucial importance for the enjoyment of all rights....

Breastfeeding support is a hybrid: sometimes it’s delightfully good. Sometimes it’s mercilessly bad. Good support is a mother’s best arsenal against boobie-traps. Bad support is a boobie-trap itself. In an era that considers the assertion: “You tried your best, breastfeeding is not the be all and end all” to be supportive, a mother wishing to breastfeed is swimming against rapids. Whilst good support is not an absolute prerequisite for successful breastfeeding (Triumphant Tuesday stories are sobering demonstrations of this!), good support does tend to smooth the path between new motherhood and one’s breastfeeding goals. The following story is a perfect illustration of what good (and bad) support looks like. “ Even before I became pregnant I always knew I wanted to breastfeed. Being a vegan it seemed the most natural and ‘normal’ way to bring up our baby. I was surprised at some of the reactions I got from people when I discussed my choice to breastfeed. Work colleagues suggested I sho...

I like using the ordinary to approach what is commonplace for some but still unfamiliar for others. The purpose is twofold: to show how everyday analogies, images, metaphors, similes and symbols can be used to see breast milk and breastfeeding from a fresh perspective; and to suggest how this approach in turn can help others see breast milk and breastfeeding in ways they would surely never have imagined. I include an occasional wink at the marketplace by using some cherished commercial jargon to describe what Mother Nature is up against, every day, on a very uneven playing field. Of pleasure and pain  When I was at most 8 or 9 years old I distinctly recall seeing a woman moving down the street with pronounced difficulty. In retrospect, the word waddle comes to mind; certainly walk would have been an exaggeration. You see, the woman was decked out in the popular attire of the early 1950s that has come and gone in several sartorial swings since. She was wearing that killer combinatio...

Parents and physicians alike are torn on the issue of how, and indeed if, hospital interventions have a detrimental impact upon maternal and child welfare. Medical procedures, for instance, labor inductions, epidurals and circumcisions, as well as the introduction of man-made devices such as nipple shields and bottles of formula, have all been linked to breastfeeding failure. They certainly didn’t help this week’s mom, Rebecca, on her quest for success. Indeed, opposers of home births would be wise to read the following story. Whilst it certainly does not reflect all cases, Rebecca’s story illustrates how the hospital environment and its inhabitants, often work together to undermine a mother’s breastfeeding efforts. “I'm lucky that in my circle of friends and acquaintances, there are dozens of mothers who have nursed their babies.  When I was pregnant, I'd see my friends nursing their babies, and I assumed that of course I would breastfeed, that's just what people do!  I wa...