Carol's post about milk banking and nursing other babies other than your
own triggered some thoughts.  Her last statement about the milk of human
kindness reminded me of Steinbeck's book, The Grapes of Wrath, when at
the end of the book the young woman(her baby had died--I think) feeds
the starving old(not sure if he was old) man at her breast.  I read this
in my early 20's and at the time thought it was disgusting, gross(not
the compassion behind the act but the act itself). It would be another
10 years before I even thought about having children or breastfeeding.
Now I reflect on that image and feel totally different.  If the book
were written today, we'd have the woman whip out her old battered pump
and put her expressed milk in some kind of container(maybe an old wine
bottle)and give it to the man.  I guess what I am hinting at is that our
American culture has become more antiseptic.  There is a tendency to
look at breastfeeding as a food, as a medicine--a product.  But, of
course breastfeeding is much, much more than food, or health.  It's
compassion. It's love.  It's a vital ingredient in the making of
humanity.  While we teach the priority, the superiority of human milk,
we also need to teach the priority, the superiority of the act itself.
Valerie W. McClain, IBCLC

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