Fully Embracing the Mother

Sorry I've been quiet lately. I just haven't really had anything to say lately, until now. I've been thinking about the three aspects of women; Maiden, Mother, and Crone.

The Triple Goddess

My daughter has become a young maiden. :) She's growing up so fast. It makes me look back when I was the maiden and see how the decisions I made affected my life. I don't believe I would change much. I'd perhaps shake the younger me and tell me to quite being naive. But perhaps the young need to be a little naive to learn and grow.

My son, bless his little heart, is growing up so fast as well. We are nearing the end of our breast feeding journey. He hardly ever wants to nurse now. I still have a little milk, but its not as much as I use to have. This makes me a bit sad, and makes me realize that while I still have many years of parenthood left, I'm getting ever closer to entering the crone stage. It's not that I don't want to be the wise woman. And indeed I think every aspect should be embraced. It's just I don't want to be older. Ah if we all could grab that miracle anti-aging serum. lol

I wanted to do something special to mark my daughters entrance into maidenhood, and of my sons passing from babe to little man. There is something sacred about the milk we give our babies. They call it liquid gold, and indeed it is that. It's life sustaining - a mothers bounty.

So I will express as much milk as possible, and offer it to the Lord and Lady as a symbol of our bounty and love as a thank you for all that we have in our life, and as a symbol for the bounty that we have yet to receive.

The milk of plenty is indeed sacred.

Blessed Be my dear readers.

World Milksharing Week!

Lets take a break from the Pagan posts to talk about Milksharing. Its World Milksharing Week! As a breastfeeding mom, I'm all for milksharing. It hit the news a few days ago about a father to a 9 month old decided to go on an all mothers milk diet. Unfortunately it looks like his blog has been taking down. I know a lot of people were upset that he was drinking it instead of the milk going to an infant. I think a lot of people over reacted without taking into consideration that,

• The milk is theirs to decide what to do with it. No one has the right to say what someone should do with their milk. 
• Donating milk isn't always easy. Milk banks have a lot of rules on what milk can be accepted. 
• Giving it to others can become expensive if its being shipped. Think about how much they had! In this economy not many people would be able to ship it. 
• IMO there are health benefits for adults to drink it too. 

There is a happy ending though. A mother of quadruplets has been given the milk, and evidently they worked out the logistics of getting the milk to her. 

About 10 years ago I had a coworker pat my belly and revel in the joy of new life forming. I was 3 months pregnant at the time with my daughter. Before my daughter was born, he was dead from cancer. We watched month after month as my friend went from a scrawny 110 pounds down to pure bones. He tried marijuana to help his appetite. However after awhile my friend just gave up. He stopped Chemo, he stopped eating, he stopped answering the phone or even leaving his house. Breastmilk may not be a cure for cancer, but it might have been able to help him keep weight on him. That would have given him the energy to continue the fight for life. Even if it had no physical effect for him, the hope it could give might have been enough for him to continue the fight.

There hasn't been enough research on the benefits of breast milk for adults. We are still fighting the good fight to raise awareness for its benefits for kids! But the more we raise awareness for the natural uses of breast milk the more accepted it will become for both children and adults.

Here are some links I found on Breast Milk uses for health reasons.

Breast Milk the New Wonder Cure? - By Louise Atkinson.

There's little doubt that breast milk helps keep babies healthy, but could it be a miracle cure for adult illnesses, too? 

That's the suggestion from a number of studies on its use as a treatment for conditions as varied as cancer, diarrhoea and diabetes.

In the latest research published last week, a Swedish team reported that the sizes of bladder tumors were reduced just five days after patients were injected with a breast milk compound. 

The team at Gothenburg University had been looking at the antibiotic properties of breast milk when a researcher noticed that cancerous lung cells in a test tube died on contact with breast milk.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1268987/Cancer-arthritis-diabetes-acne--breast-milk-new-wonder-cure.html#ixzz1Z0vV18S3

Breast Milk contains Stem Cells

The Perth scientist who made the world-first discovery that human breast milk contains stem cells is confident that within five years scientists will be harvesting them to research treatment for conditions as far-reaching as spinal injuries, diabetes and Parkinson’s disease.

But what Dr Mark Cregan is excited about right now is the promise that his discovery could be the start of many more exciting revelations about the potency of breast milk.

He believes that it not only meets all the nutritional needs of a growing infant but contains key markers that guide his or her development into adulthood.

To wrap this up, I'd just like to leave you with these final words. If you are OK with drinking milk from a cow or goat, then why wouldn't you be OK to drink milk from a human? Its just Milk, so drink it. :-) 

Happy Breastfeeding Week

Sierra giving Wyatt breast milk via bottle

So Wyatt is 2 1/2 months old now and that means we've been nursing for that long. My second baby is so much easier than my first and I attribute that to breastfeeding and co-sleeping. My first I did things very traditional. Formula, CIO, sleeping in her crib from day 1, etc... I didn't have any mom input from others besides grandmothers and great grandmothers so I really had no other viewpoint.

Me & Wyatt nursing

Now I can definitely see a difference. Wyatt still fights sleep like Sierra did, but he doesn't scream all night. He's chose his own schedule to sleep which is fine. The point is that he actually does sleep! With Sierra she would cry for hours on end for years before we'd have a peaceful nights sleep.
I refuse to sleep in the actual bed with Wyatt. I'm afraid I'll forget he's there and roll over on him or something. But his bassinet is next to me which was so great when I was first out of the hospital. I had a c-section so standing always was a pain.
I think I'm really doing things better now. Not that FF is bad or anything. I think its great if your not able to BF. I'd certainly rather see a baby well fed ANY way than to die of starvation. But breastfeeding is so much more than just nourishment. Its our special time. I like the bond that it has given us. With my daughter, she's more of a daddy's girl and I have always been jealous of that.

I like my num nums!

Nursing

I don't go many places right now, but when I do usually I'll need to nurse in public (NIP). I live in a very small town so breastfeeding in general isn't very popular. I've gotten a mixed bag of looks and comments. Some just smile and nod. Some glance at me and look away. A few have pointed their finger at me and whispered to their companions. And one even asked to "See the baby". As if he didn't know I was nursing. That guy was just a perv. The point is, breastfeeding is natural. It shouldn't be this foreign concept that people want to hide away or point at like its part of a circus side show. So in honor of breast feeding week, I'm proud to say I'm a breast feeding mother, and I hope that my experience will help another mom to choose to breast feed her LO too.