Happy Black Breastfeeding Week 2020
The benefits of nursing a new baby was something my mother agreed was important, but “only for the first couple of weeks, so they get your immunity. After that, it’s just too hard to manage.” Breastfeeding wasn’t normalized in my immediate family. It wasn’t looked down on either. I don’t blame my mother. Generations of women, particularly black women were taught the same rhetoric: breastfeeding, while divined by nature was just too…hard.
Of course, her own experience colored the advice she gave me. She was never able to nurse my older brother due to inverted nipples. According to a Healthline article about inverted nipples, “for some women, inverted nipples can make breastfeeding more difficult. Some women find that their baby has a hard time latching onto the nipple to feed. This may be because, due to inversion, the nipple doesn’t become erect.”
Being a working mother made it harder to continue exclusive feeding during the 70’s and 80’s. Nursing aids like nipple shields and pumps weren’t really a thing in 70’s Trinidad. And she never mentioned trying to draw out her nipples by hand like the Hoffman technique suggests.
By the time my mother had me, she had an easier time, though she stopped nursing me by the time I was 3 months old. “You had a strong suction” she would tell me. “It was just too painful for me.” I often wonder if she had a guide or someone to help her if she would have gone longer or even tried to nurse me when she could.
Whether they encourage us to look at the stories we were told by mothers in our family or the stories we’ve lived ourselves, August—which celebrates National Breastfeeding Month, Native Breastfeeding Week (August 9-15) and Black Breastfeeding Week (August 25-31) is an especially meaningful time to unpack our breastfeeding stories in a healing way.
The theme of this year’s Black Breastfeeding Week is Revive, Restore, Reclaim. What a beautiful and on-time theme because 2020 has been a rough one. A global pandemic, the righteous reckoning and continued fight for racial justice in America, and even more lives lost from the black maternal mortality crisis. The beauty of this theme is that it asks us questions that acknowledge our inherent power. I wanted to share my thoughts on how I see this theme empowering me this year.
Revive: regain life, consciousness, or strength. *
“Images matter. They tell us what's possible, what things go together, what belongs and what doesn't belong. And we're all just trying to belong somewhere."
— Emily Nagoski | Author of Come As You Are
I stand in awe of images that speak to the renewed strength that breastfeeding often taps into. We need these images to counter all the news, videos and images of black bodies being carelessly snuffed out.
Knowing that your body is keeping a precious human being alive through liquid that flows from your breasts is like having a superpower. The nursing journey, often filled with sleep deprivation, engorged breasts, stress and yes, sometimes pain, does more than 100 fold for your self-worth. There’s a collective joy we feel as black parents seeing our feeds flooded with images of ourselves reflecting back. These photos REVIVE a strength and self-worth that was always there but seldom showed in mainstream media.
Restore: to give something previously stolen, taken away, or lost back to the original owner. *
This week and always, we remember the ways in which black women were denied the ability to nourish their own children and instead were forced to feed the babies of their master’s wives. It is a painful memory tied to legacy of slavery and generational trauma in the black community. But each time we latch our babies, we have to make a habit of rejoicing in the RESTORATION of our bodily autonomy. We take back the means of nourishment ripped from us and lovingly give it to our own children. Even though we might look forward to the days where no one needs our bodies on demand, a great deal has been restored.
Reclaim: to retrieve or recover something previously lost, given, or paid. *
Advocates that speak out against the disparities that still exist in breastfeeding (see initiation rates, pushing formula use in hospitals, not enough lactation consultants that look like us) are all reclaiming space for black nursing parents in various ways.
If you feel called to become a lactation consultant don’t be afraid to take that step. We need more of us in the field. What especially encourages me though, is seeing all the ways we can RECLAIM space. I continue to use storytelling as a means of creating community, education and healing space. Others are breaking stigmas in their own families by being the first in two generations to proudly nurse their children into toddlerhood.
