This is Alyssum

Zimbabwean, age 18
Location Outside a fuel station, Athlone, South Africa
Feeding her two-month-old child
Photographed December 2018

I was having an argument with my baby [laughs].  He’s so used to drinking pumped breast milk out of the bottle that he doesn’t want to nipple feed. I think he must get confused. He has to bottle feed a lot because I work. Sometimes he will want the breast when I’m home, but mostly it’s when he’s really hungry. Then he sucks so hard, he ends up choking – it goes down the wrong pipe. So we have arguments about how to feed [laughs]. It’s fun being a young mom. I don’t mind any of these frustrations because I am just so happy we have him.

This baby was planned. My husband and I had a stillborn baby boy in 2014; it was incredibly traumatic. Having our second born has been a healing thing. He was 2.8 kilograms at birth. And at the six-week check-up he weighed five kilograms. He’s solid. I think I’ll probably exclusively breastfeed him for four to five months. We believe that boys get quite hungry [for solids], it’s a Shona thing. At that stage sometimes women will give their babies a kind of porridge: They soak maize meal with water overnight and then feed the baby the strained, cooked water. It’s also a Shona thing to feed your baby cooking oil [sunflower/canola predominantly] for his tummy; it helps his intestines release easily, it really helps. You warm the oil on the stove a little bit and add a little salt. He had oil a couple of times after he was born, probably about two times a day for the first two weeks, just a little bit on a teaspoon. (Mothers also “make a way”, make it easier for the baby to be born by drinking a cup of warmed cooking oil before the birth. I didn’t do that though, because I’m fussy.) We don’t tell the nurses in the clinic because they freak out. People here in South Africa, they don’t understand because they’ve never heard of it. We’ve known about this method for a long time. Some Xhosa people know about the oil as well. But you know, where we came from people didn’t have access to any other options. It’s actually an alternative to colic drops which are really expensive, even when on special in the shops.

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 Ahisha

Dutch, age 28
Location In a boutique in Amsterdam, the Netherlands
Feeding her four-month-old child
Photographed August 2018

I don’t believe in giving children – or people – milk from cows, or any other animals for that matter. It’s just not the way it is supposed to be. In my opinion we should drink our own milk, it is made for our babies. Some people are becoming aware of what to give babies. I haven’t had any animal’s milk for four years and I won’t give any to her when she’s older either. I’ll try to give her my milk for as long as I can. I was brought up to believe that [cow’s] milk is so healthy, good for your bones and blah blah. It’s just been marketed that way – people are starting to become aware of that. You wouldn’t see a calf drinking human milk right [laughs]? It is so strange that we drink cow’s milk. It’s about our health, it’s about animal cruelty and choosing what you support. Dairy products or animal products are dead matter. You feel good when you’re eating things like fruit and vegetables because they are alive.

Formula is predominantly produced using cow’s milk. There are a few which are vegan though [such as corn and rice-protein based formulas], but they are very expensive. I did some research to see if I could find a back-up, just in case.

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 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.