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The Art of
Mother's Milk


"My baby was born to be nurtured by me in every way, and one of the most important is that he actually grows by being nourished by me. And so breast-feeding is an extension of the womb. When my child came out of my womb, the umbilical cord was cut. When I began breast-feeding I can remember distinctly feeling that a second cord was formed---the pyschic cord---from my heart to the child 's heart directly. It was almost physical---it was that strongly felt.

When you are pregnant, the child is nourished by you all that time, and then it gets too big so it comes out, you should still hold it very close within your aura and your protection while you continue to nourish it from your body."

---Breasts: Women Speak About Their Breasts and Their Lives
by Daphna Ayalah and Isaac J. Weinstock (Summit Books, NY 1979)

 

To learn what Mother's Milk contains click here.

Cave art showing a nursing mother

 

 

 

Isis nursing Horus (ancient Egyptian art)

 

 

 

Terra Mater, Roman art

 

 

 

Madonna and Child,(Museo del Duomo, Siena, Italy)

 

 

 

 

 

 

The galaxies were created from the spray of milk from Hera's breasts.
Painting of a scene from Greek mythology by Tintoretto.

 

 

 

 

NNative American mother nursing

 

 

 

Veiled woman nursing

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

WMother and child (photographer unknown)

 

 

 

Breasts by Genichiro Yagyu (Kane/MillerBooks,LaJolla,CA, 1999)

 

 

 

Breasts by Genichiro Yagyu (Kane/MillerBooks,LaJolla,CA, 1999)

 

 

Breasts by Genichiro Yagyu (Kane/MillerBooks,LaJolla,CA, 1999)

 

 

More information and Image credits:

All black and white images, (unless otherwise noted) courtesy:

Breast: Women Speak About Their Breasts and Their Lives
by Daphna Ayalah and Isaac J. Weinstock

Color photo from University of Medicine & Dentistry of New Jersey

Other color images from : Promotion of Mother'sMilk.com

More art of mother's milk here.

 


Babytalk magazine generates controversy with nursing cover

NEW YORK (AP) -- "I was SHOCKED to see a giant breast on the cover of your magazine," one person wrote. "I immediately turned the magazine face down," wrote another. "Gross," said a third.

These readers weren't complaining about a sexually explicit cover, but rather one of a baby nursing, on a wholesome parenting magazine -- yet another sign that Americans are squeamish over the sight of a nursing breast, even as breast-feeding itself gains more support from the government and medical community.

Babytalk is a free magazine whose readership is overwhelmingly mothers of babies. Yet in a poll of more than 4,000 readers, a quarter of responses to the cover were negative, calling the photo -- a baby and part of a woman's breast, in profile -- inappropriate.

One mother who didn't like the cover explains she was concerned about her 13-year-old son seeing it.

"I shredded it," said Gayle Ash, of Belton, Texas, in a telephone interview. "A breast is a breast -- it's a sexual thing. He didn't need to see that."

It's the same reason that Ash, 41, who nursed all three of her children, is cautious about breast-feeding in public -- a subject of enormous debate among women, which has even spawned a new term: "lactivists," meaning those who advocate for a woman's right to nurse wherever she needs to.

"I'm totally supportive of it -- I just don't like the flashing," she said. "I don't want my son or husband to accidentally see a breast they didn't want to see."

Another mother, Kelly Wheatley, wrote Babytalk to applaud the cover, precisely because, she said, it helps educate people that breasts are more than sex objects. And yet Wheatley, 40, who's still nursing her 3-year-old daughter, rarely breast-feeds in public, partly because it's more comfortable in the car, and partly because her husband is uncomfortable with other men seeing her breast.

"Men are very visual," said Wheatley, of Amarillo, Texas. "When they see a woman's breast, they see a breast -- regardless of what it's being used for."

Read the full article here.

 

agazine whose readership is overwhelmingly mothers of babies. Yet in a poll of more than 4,000 readers, a quarter of responses to the cover were negative, calling the photo -- a baby and part of a woman's breast, in profile -- inappropriate.

One mother who didn't like the cover explains she was concerned about her 13-year-old son seeing it.

"I shredded it," said Gayle Ash, of Belton, Texas, in a telephone interview. "A breast is a breast -- it's a sexual thing. He didn't need to see that."

It's the same reason that Ash, 41, who nursed all three of her children, is cautious about breast-feeding in public -- a subject of enormous debate among women, which has even spawned a new term: "lactivists," meaning those who advocate for a woman's right to nurse wherever she needs to.

"I'm totally supportive of it -- I just don't like the flashing," she said. "I don't want my son or husband to accidentally see a breast they didn't want to see."

Another mother, Kelly Wheatley, wrote Babytalk to applaud the cover, precisely because, she said, it helps educate people that breasts are more than sex objects. And yet Wheatley, 40, who's still nursing her 3-year-old daughter, rarely breast-feeds in public, partly because it's more comfortable in the car, and partly because her husband is uncomfortable with other men seeing her breast.


ee a giant breast on the cover of your magazine," one person wrote. "I immediately turned the magazine face down," wrote another. "Gross," said a third.

These readers weren't complaining about a sexually explicit cover, but rather one of a baby nursing, on a wholesome parenting magazine -- yet another sign that Americans are squeamish over the sight of a nursing breast, even as breast-feeding itself gains more support from the government and medical community.

Babytalk is a free magazine whose readership is overwhelmingly mothers of babies. Yet in a poll of more than 4,000 readers, a quarter of responses to the cover were negative, calling the photo -- a baby and part of a woman's breast, in profile -- inappropriate.

One mother who didn't like the cover explains she was concerned about her 13-year-old son seeing it.

"I shredded it," said Gayle Ash, of Belton, Texas, in a telephone interview. "A breast is a breast -- it's a sexual thing. He didn't need to see that."

It's the same reason that Ash, 41, who nursed all three of her children, is cautious about breast-feeding in public -- a subject of enormous debate among women, which has even spawned a new term: "lactivists," meaning those who advocate for a woman's right to nurse wherever she needs to.

"I'm totally supportive of it -- I just don't like the flashing," she said. "I don't want my son or husband to accidentally see a breast they didn't want to see."

Another mother, Kelly Wheatley, wrote Babytalk to applaud the cover, precisely because, she said, it helps educate people that breasts are more than sex objects. And yet Wheatley, 40, who's still nursing her 3-year-old daughter, rarely breast-feeds in public, partly because it's more comfortable in the car, and partly because her husband is uncomfortable with other men seeing her breast.