Monday, November 5, 2012

Would you like more Whole Milk?

I've noticed that there have been quite a few hits on my Whole Milk posts.   Listen up, people.  If you would like to read the rest of the story and see how it ends, PLEASE "like" Whole Milk on Facebook.  You can also "friend" me if you have questions.  Get the word out there!  You are the biggest contributor to making this happen!

I will keep you apprised of the latest happenings so that you can know what to expect.

Thank you for your support!

BKB

http://www.facebook.com/#!/betty.knowsbreast

http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Whole-Milk/243375679124124

Friday, November 2, 2012

Whole Milk - Introduction

I had actually sat down to write this book several months ago, but the timing was all wrong.  My initial plan was to write a serious how-to book with the intent to show mothers how to protect themselves in a society where breastfeeding still hasn’t been embraced the way it is in most societies.  Along with that intent, I wanted to stick it to the man for being so ignorant and not recognizing the benefits of breastfeeding; for not acknowledging the consequences of not only failing to create an appropriate environment for women who breastfeed and pump, but for essentially pressuring women to quit early or forgo the opportunity altogether by their neglect of the matter.  Looking back, I can now say my initial intentions were fueled by 3 things: 1) the stress caused by my post-partum work environment, 2) post-partum depression, and 3) reading Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games series while I was battling the aforementioned numbers 1 and 2.  It may seem amusing, but this combination of elements had me reeling!
After a lot of self-reflection (and ultimately concluding that such a book would be difficult to write and boring to read), I changed my direction and decided to simply journal my feelings and experiences during the times that I was pumping breast milk.  At the time I was spending a minimum of 75 minutes per day in this position, so I had a lot of time to think about the craziness of it all.  Picture this:  me nestled on the comfy Mother’s Room love seat, or the glider in the nursery at home, my shirt hiked up to my neck, my left hand holding the breast pump guard in place, and my right hand hastily scribbling my internal madness on a worn-out Moleskine notebook.  I’m sure I looked like a lunatic, and there were days when I definitely felt like one.  I often ended the day with two cramped hands and the two voices inside my head arguing about why I shouldn’t just spend my pumping time stalking people on Facebook, rather than developing carpel tunnel by spending so much time doing this ancient activity called writing-by-hand.
So, what is my new intent?  Will it be good enough for people to continue reading this book once they find out what it is?  I’ll let others be the judge.  Women talk… a lot.  But when it comes to the topic of breastfeeding, it seems like many women walk on eggshells, which means that they won’t readily divulge as much information as might be necessary in order to help out a fellow woman who may be struggling with breastfeeding (I don’t, however, believe this to be intentional or malicious.  It’s simply that no one knows where to draw the line with regard to spilling their guts).  So, my new intent is to give people—the expecting mother, the currently breastfeeding mother, the “next time I want to try breastfeeding” mother (be careful when using quotation marks here!), the genuinely interested father-to-be of a potential breastfeeding mother, the genuinely perverted man who will inevitably read this book for no reason other than to read the word “breast” over and over (because these weirdoes do exist)—a real open and honest view of breastfeeding.  WARNING: The content of this book may occasionally be graphic in nature.
Anyone who isn’t already leery about broaching the subject will probably become so. On the other hand, by the end of this book, I believe readers will have the desire to birth 10 children and nurse them all until they are 48 months old.  If my belief does not hold true, I am hoping people will at least have a better understanding of why so many women choose to breastfeed their children, and all that women must endure in order to uphold their conviction that, for them personally, breast is best in mom-eat-mom U.S.A.
So sit back, latch on, and suck this book down!