Teaching the teachers.
We humans are mammals, living creatures that make milk to feed our live-born babies.
Every mammal on earth breastfeeds, in a style specific and unique to each species. Some mammals give birth to litters, more than one baby: cats, dogs, pigs, and tigers. Others, like those in the primate branch of mammals, give birth to one or two babies. Prirmates are a group that includes humans, lemurs, lorises, tarsiers, monkeys, and apes.
Every mammal on earth breastfeeds by virtue of instinct and reflex, or by growing up seeing others of its own kind breastfeeding. There are stories of gorilla and orangutan mothers that didn’t know how to breastfeed their first babies because they grew up in a zoo and never saw breastfeeding. Zookeepers have learned to invite nursing mothers to sit outside the cage and breastfeed openly in front of these gorilla and orangutan mothers. https://metrorichmondzoo.com/newsroom/orangutan-learns-how-to-nurse-from-breastfeeding-zookeeper/ This strategy works because primates, whether they are gorillas or human, learn by watching. Mothers that see breastfeeding learn to do it.
Of all the mammals in the US today, humans have the most trouble with breastfeeding.
There are many reasons for this. One is that whole generations are growing up without seeing breastfeeding; another is because breasts have become sexualized; and a third is because humans have had breastfeeding derailed by a competitor for the past 100 years. That competitor is the commercial milk formula industry that cares only about profit and is undermining public health around the world. Today, few women grow up with a breastfeeding family tradition. When it is time to give birth, many have nowhere to turn but to healthcare workers and social media to make an infant feeding decision.
Who is today’s teacher of breastfeeding? Who are the ones who know about it, and want to share their knowledge and give accurate advice and encouragement to new mothers?
In some communities, it is grandmothers and aunties, sisters and cousins, and mother-to-mother support organizations. In others, it is childbirth educators and doulas, midwives and nurses, peer counselors and community health workers, lactation counselors and breastfeeding supporters, doctors and therapists.
Who teaches those people?
I do.
I breastfed my own babies for a lifetime total of over 8 years. i started my lactation consultant career as librarian for the Harford County (Maryland) La Leche League in 1975. Today, half a century later, I am a grandmother who wants to share what I have learned with everyone working with childbearing families.
I have worked with thousands of families and traveled the world to teach about breastfeeding because there is nothing more important in the world than our babies.
“The world is yearning for Grandmother energy. An energy that is cherishing, nourishing, embracing, loving, supportive, and full of compassion. This energy is an aspect of the mature sacred feminine energy our planet so desperately needs.
We all have the power to be this potent energy for others…”
— Lynn Twist
I am that Grandmother. I would like to introduce you to the ‘Breastfeeding Foundations for Your Community course”, a 20-hour live, virtual course that offers 20 nursing contact hours and CERPs, It is my way of cherishing, nourishing and embracing the next generations of babies, by teaching all the people who will be supporting and teaching pregnant and new mothers.
