Noonaawsod is good Mushkiki

By Lynda Banning

I was sitting at my desk playing with my breast – the crocheted one in the picture that is- and I realized there is a story that needs to be told.

My co-workers and I facilitate workshops across the Anishinabek Territory to encourage an appreciation for breasts, and especially the breast milk they produce. I learned recently that any amount of breast milk will have a beneficial effect for a baby.  Breast milk promotes brain development, it provides special protection for premature and ill infants, and is more easily digested. What a difference this could make to an infant who is struggling to survive.

Elders told us women would just whip their breasts out anywhere when the baby needed to eat. There was no discomfort; men were okay with it because they knew babies need to eat.

There were even wet nurses many moons ago, women who would feed a baby when the mother was not able to for some reason. They call that “donor milk” these days (howah). It is donated and provided by prescription to the weakest babies because the health benefits are so important.

I was happy to learn that even one education and counselling session can improve breastfeeding rates. So we are going to continue to do what we do. What can you do to help make sure our babies receive valuable breast milk? Give it some thought; play around with it for awhile. We hope parents, families and communities choose human milk when deciding what to feed baby.

Lynda Banning works for the Union of Ontario Indians in the Fort William First Nation Satellite Office. She is the Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder Regional Program Worker for the Northern Superior Region. She may be contacted by phone at 807-623-8887 or by email at lynda.banning@anishinabek.ca