Mother's milk

Breastfeeding can be like it looks in magazines: drowsy baby looking up at blissed-out mother. At the start though, when you and a frantic, wordless creature are trying to solve a 3D moving puzzle, you may feel less like a mother goddess and more like Alice trying to persuade her flamingo to unfurl itself and play croquet: pecked and perplexed.

It doesn't help that the NHS/NCT guidance majors on breastfeeding being A Good Thing and rather skates over any difficulties. The result is that although in 2010 83% of babies in England were breastfed at birth, only 24% were exclusively breastfed at six weeks and only 1% at six months. 

Anyway, this is where the Hornsey Road children's centre and its breastfeeding drop-in come in. It's a simple idea (from 1:30. to 3:30 on Mondays volunteers give mothers practical advice) but it's transformative and this post is my attempt at saying thank you. 

If I could I'd award the volunteers damehoods and buy them all yachts, but that'll have to wait until I rule the world.

 

Incidentally, see below for proof of the long history of unrealistic images of breastfeeding. 

The model was Agnes Sorel, who was the king's mistress and died the same year.