This is Alexandra

South African, age 29
Location At a play park near Capri Village, Cape Town, South Africa
Feeding her four-month-old child
Photographed June 2017

My daughter had a problem in the first two months: she couldn’t keep sucking and kept “popping” off. She would get frustrated, so I started to Google what the problem could be. I found a forum where other moms were describing similar problems and I discovered it’s a thing, it’s called tongue-tie. This is when the skin membrane between the tongue and bottom pallet [a band of tissue called the lingual frenulum] is connected more tightly than it should be.

My daughter’s membrane looked slightly “short”. After much more research I realised that her tongue-tie was not severe and that she, like most babies, could simply grow out of it. Surgical intervention was therefore thankfully not necessary – although one can get it snipped by a doc if it means baby can’t receive enough milk. When we went to a paediatric specialist, she confirmed my own diagnosis. Within two months my baby’s tongue had grown more and it was no longer an issue.

It baffles my mind that the same body part that is idolised sexually can all of a sudden be deemed disgusting when it’s doing what’s it’s intended to do. I find it funny, and would rather make people feel awkward than starve my child. I remember her screaming in shops, and I’d be thinking, “But there’s nowhere to feed you!” Sometimes you have to read a situation and do what’s best for your baby.

This little being was once a star. A star that looked down upon the earth and chose you as its mother. I can’t think of a better way to honour that soul than to give it the most magical, miracle nourishment we can give, breast milk. So it’s a personal challenge, a challenge to keep on breastfeeding for as long as I can. It can be very demanding on a mother and I’m proud to say we’re doing so well.

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 her blurb from the book.

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.

This is Amanda

South African, age 34
Location In front of the lighthouse in Mouille Point, Cape Town, South Africa
Feeding her twelve-week-old child
Photographed April 2019

Every baby is different, every boob is different – and there are so many things which could go wrong, or which could work. My mom’s generation came from a time of little info and lots of formula, whereas our generation is overloaded with options and opinions. I had a very forceful let-down, so he kept getting wind all the time. It took us a while to figure each other out. I had to feed lying back, so basically going against gravity. People said it would settle after six weeks, but oh no, it didn’t. It only settled a week ago. Every time I’d go out in public, I’d be super conscious and nervous to feed. My husband kept telling me stop being such a prude [laughs]. He told me no one would care, I’m just feeding our child. I was like, “I’m going to be a prude, I just can’t do it!” I bought a cover, and you know, I’ve got big boobs, plus a forceful let down plus it’s spraying everywhere. If my son pulls the cover off, it’s going to spray everywhere. That’s just not me [laughs].

I still can’t travel without facecloths to mop up. If, at any given time, he pops off…[shakes her head, wide eyed]. I think now I’ve learned. I can feel the let-down coming. If he pops off then I can stop [the milk from spraying] by quickly covering my nipple. I find it hilarious when I get up in the morning and his face has dried milk on it. It’s on my arms, my phone… a light spray, everywhere. Epic fail.

My husband and I spoke a lot about breastfeeding before our baby was born. Before I even had children, I was quite nervous about breastfeeding. I said to my husband that it might feel like a weird sensation. For me the breast was always felt more sexual and not this thing that you would use to feed your child. I knew it was going to change when I had a child, but I was a little bit nervous whether I would actually enjoy breastfeeding or not. He was very pro breastfeeding and was set on a minimum of a year [laughs]. I said, let’s start the journey and see how it goes from there. We are surrounded by so much positive breastfeeding info and I’m lucky to have two amazing breastfeeding gurus as friends who’ve given me much direction.

I go back to work in a few weeks. Our office was not exactly breastfeeding or pumping friendly, everything was glass, but they are renovating and the new meeting rooms will have misted glass so it’s all worked out well. They have been happy to adapt. My colleague fought really hard to have our maternity policy changed. We work for a smallish company, 80 to 100 people, and she argued that we are a family-orientated business, hiring young women, so we should have a great maternity policy. She turned the policy totally around. It’s wonderful.

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 her blurb from the book.

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.

This is Andrea

German, age 34
Location A shopping mall in Tableview, Cape Town, South Africa
Feeding her one-year-old child
Photographed June 2017

People forget that breasts are not just sexual, but have a function for a baby as well. Just like all breastfed babies, my baby boy loves to put his hand under my shirt and play with my nipples for comfort, especially when he is tired. I have received comments such as, “Well, clearly he is a boy,” and, “Girl babies don’t stick their hands in mommy’s shirt.”

When I had my first baby, I felt like it wasn’t “normal” to breastfeed for more than six months, just because none of my “mom friends” were doing it. I felt like I had to slowly start weaning at six months, and then felt the pressure to introduce formula at some stage, which I did when he was nine months old. I stopped breastfeeding at ten months. I actually knew babies needed milk until they were two years old. I followed this route because it seemed to be the way to go; I just wasn’t confident enough to continue breastfeeding as I didn’t have a support group at that stage.

Now it feels ridiculous that I changed to formula and cow’s milk even though I loved breastfeeding! Seeing other mothers breastfeeding toddlers looked so natural. My second son is still breastfed at the age of two. It seems a way more natural choice: to keep it up rather than wean him.

Now it angers me when I see new mothers not even trying to breastfeed because they’ve been told that formula is just as good – or even better. My sister’s friend who lives in Germany was advised to buy a special formula for her daughter who’d been born ten weeks premature. The doctor convinced her that breast milk wasn’t mild enough for a premature baby!

When my second son was about five months old, I decided to start donating breast milk to babies who needed it*. I donated just over seven litres of frozen breast milk to Milk Matters over a few weeks. I wish I’d done it when my boys were newborns, as my milk would then have been used for newborns; the most important time for babies to build their immune system. It was more difficult to donate than I thought it would be as I didn’t have as much milk, but I am glad I tried.

<sidenote>
Breast milk helps bolster a child’s immune system and milk “banks” collect milk for mothers who cannot produce their own.

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 her blurb from the book.

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.

This is Annah

Malawian, age 29
Location A street corner in Lotus River, Cape Town, South Africa
Feeding her six-month-old child
Photographed November 2018

All the people who live here [in this compound] are also Malawian. They give me wonderful support and are so happy to see me breastfeed. Sometimes they’ll bring my son back to me when they see that he’s been playing for a long time. They’ll say, “The child is hungry now, you must feed him.” It’s the best thing. This morning I was bathing, and my neighbour was playing with my son. When he got sleepy, she came to me and said he must drink before he went to sleep. She said: “Hey sisi, he’s hungry; you must give him the breast, he’s hungry now.” They help me a lot.

It felt very easy when I first gave him my breasts. I was still young, and shy, but when I gave birth, I was so happy. Right at the beginning my breasts were so full. They told me to take some of the milk out [express it] and put it in a bottle, because the baby was still so young and only drinking little by little. I still like to breastfeed. My son drinks nicely and I’ve never had to worry that he hasn’t got enough food. Yoh! He drinks a lot of milk. He gets really full [laughs].

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 her blurb from the book.

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.