This is Sarah
South African, age 31
Location- at the Christ Church in Kenilworth, Cape Town.
Feeding her 4-month-old child
Photographed October 2019
I expected the worst but have actually found breastfeeding much easier and less painful than expected. My son really struggled at times thanks to horrible ear infections which made it painful for him to suck. But together we have expressed and bottle fed at times, done many many short feeds when that was all he could manage and lots of dream and night feeding when he was more relaxed.
Expressing breastmilk for donation to premature babies has also been very rewarding and helped me maintain a good milk supply!
In 2019 I published my first book, Breastfeeding 101, which features candid portraits of 101 breastfeeding women as well their honest stories. In this blog post you see one of the mothers represented with a short personal blurb about her breastfeeding journey.
The idea for this book was unexpectedly sparked three years ago when I started seeing a lot of controversial social media content about breasts, nipples and breastfeeding.
Looking forward I hope my book can help normalise what is already a women’s most natural act. I would love to see the breastfeeding percentage rate in South Africa double. It came as a surprise to learn that, according to the 2018 statistics of the World Health Organisation (WHO), our country has one of the lowest breastfeeding rates in the world.
Breastfeeding 101 features mothers from South Africa as well as around the globe and serves as a first-hand body of information – an unintentional handbook – directly from the women it captures.
Breastfeeding 101 is a book that wasn’t intended as a manual but may serve as one.
Basic info about the book:
Title: Breastfeeding 101
Publisher: Self-published via Staging Post
Format: Hardcover, 22 x 27cm, 224 pages
Price: ZAR385
Available for purchase via Exclusive Books, The Book Lounge and directly from the author.
