A picture is worth a thousand words. This is what they say. I sit in the summer sun, feeding my baby girl. This photo is for her. I don’t want to just speak of breastfeeding I want her to see it.
It’s important that I capture this moment for her. My ancestors never had the privilege of capturing a moment like this. Or perhaps even feeding their own child.
As a black woman there is a struggle to see a positive image of black breastfeeding. It’s usually a wet nurse and you can almost feel the sorrow through the photograph. A life that is not their own.
As a black woman there is a struggle to see a positive image of black breastfeeding.
Today I’m outside, I’m in the summer sun and l’m feeding my baby girl. I’m humming Nina Simone’s, “I’m feeling good. I sing the chorus, “it’s a new dawn, it’s a new day, it’s a new life-and I’m feeling good.”
I lookout to the beach and the waves are coming in. I think of a Langston Hughes poem, “I’ve known rivers: I’ve known rivers ancient as the world and older than the flow of human blood in human veins.” My baby girl drifts off to sleep as the tide comes in.
I open up my music app and put on some Kendrick Lamar, he’s on the cover holding his toddler, his fiancée on a bed nursing their daughter. The album cover resonates with me. I feel connected to it. We outside, I whisper.
I open instagram; I see Rihanna breastfeeding her baby looking amazing, rocking fenty. I smile, We outside! We are connected. It’s in our DNA and we are born to do this. Let’s do this baby girl!
It’s Black Breastfeeding Week and the theme this is year is “We outside.” To me it’s many intricate nuances. I’ll try to explain, the word outside can be an adverb, not within the boundaries or confines of a place.
It’s Black Breastfeeding Week and the theme this is year is “We outside.” To me it’s many intricate nuances.
As a black woman it is all places within our communities and beyond. There are no boundaries, and we are limitless to what we can achieve together.
James Baldwin once said, Those who say it can’t be done are usually interrupted by others doing it.” We are “doing it,” and let’s celebrate, today and every day as a community not confined, without boundaries, we are limitless.
