Soul Highway

Your momma got milk?

A Time article last month announced that breastfeeding may once again be in vogue. Much has been said about how breast milk is the healthier choice for babies over infant formula and studies tend to support that. Research seems to imply that breastfeeding is good for moms, too - findings suggest that breastfeeding may lessen the risk of breast cancer among women who give birth at later age.

I grew up in a small, rural community where women, most of them stay-at-home moms, were breastfeeding their infants. Seeing mothers with babies suckling at their exposed breasts while gossiping with friends was as ordinary as being roused from sleep every now and then by a bolo-wielding inebriated neighbor who goes amok.

In recent years, however, more and more mothers are choosing to pursue careers of their own for personal or economic reasons and pushing pregnancies past 25 years of age. In their efforts to hold on to their jobs, these moms understandably default to formula milk. But is there an alternative solution for moms who want to breastfeed and go to work at the same time? According to the Time article, cross-nursing may be the answer.

Cross-nursing means mothers breastfeeding one another’s babies. Pause. I know. The story points out:

“Not everyone is comfortable with this freewheeling baby feeding. Milk banks, which sell bottled breast milk, already make some people squirm; the idea of physically breast-feeding a child not your own evokes even deeper taboos.”

One California mom is quoted as saying, “Breast milk is a communal commodity around here." I wonder how many moms out there are comfortable with sharing their milk. Outsourcing breast milk will likely strike a sensitive chord among many people. Just think about it, some people are already offended by public breastfeeding. Last month, a Florida mother was kicked out of a restaurant for baring her bosom to breastfeed her five-month-old baby. Since when has something so natural as feeding your baby become unpleasant to the public eye?

In other news, some 4,000 mothers in the Philippines joined in a simultaneous breastfeeding event nationwide last May 2 to raise awareness on breastfeeding and a set a new world record.

Posted by fleur at May 3, 2007 10:35 PM