Thursday, February 3, 2011

Many mothers

Today, Olivia had her well-baby check up. She is almost 7 months old and weighs a whopping 11 lbs 13 oz. She smiled and laughed at every face she saw. I filled out the development forms, but hesitated when I got to the parts that asked about Olivia's diet. She is technically not breast-fed by me, but being bottle fed donor breastmilk. I discussed this with Olivia's pediatrician, a woman from Korea. She said people in this country are uptight about sharing breastmilk, but it is a common practice in many parts of the world. She told me a story about her husband. When he was a baby his mother could not produce enough breastmilk for him on her own, so another breastfeeding woman she knew would come each day to help feed him. To this day, her husband says he has 'two mothers'.

Three shots, and a heel stick to check Olivia's Hgb, ended our visit. I held her close and wiped our tears.

Later, I rocked Olivia to sleep feeding her a bottle of milk. Milk from one of Olivia's many mothers...

No comments:

Post a Comment