About “His Milkmaid”

This will be later incorporated into an “about me” page:

About His Milkmaid

Lactation is a natural for me. It is a part of who I am as a woman. I see it as an element of the female essence. Many women in today’s world have no desire to include this particular female essence in their lives. If they do, then they do it for their babies. I respect that. A woman should be be true to herself. 

Ever since I first saw a mother nurse a child, I knew I would nurse my own when I gave birth. I was a child myself, but the magic between them did not escape me. I felt it across the room in my own little body. 

When I got married and had my first child, I knew no one who nursed. My own mother had passed away in my youth, and my mothering role model had adopted all her children as toddlers. My friends were bottle feeding. I was blessed that my husband was supportive. I struggled with my first baby. I knew nothing of proper latching, and our problems were blamed on colic. (Oh the glory of the Internet. I wish it had been around back then.) I nursed her for eight months. With my second child I was fortunate enough to have moved across the street from two women who both were active in natural living and the La Leche League. They taught me everything I should have known with my first child. To this day, they probably do not know how much of a life long influence their interaction had on who I am today.

I went on to nurse what became a quiver-full family. There was never another case of colic.  We had a large family and breastfeeding was apart of my life for most of the next seventeen years. During those years, my husband enjoyed my breasts. I thought it was very natural for a father to enjoy the bounty of breasts while they did what they were created to do. We kept it to the privacy of our bedroom like we did the rest of our intimate life, but there was joking and winks among our friends when we were a young couple. Never for the life of me, did I have any idea that it was considered taboo. I never even questioned it. Oh for the bliss of ignorance! We enjoyed it without any shame or guilt. 

Later we were naturally drawn to like-minded people, so we surrounded ourselves with friends who also had quiver-full families. We even joined a sub-culture for many years, (think Mennonite or Amish lifestyle.) At this point, none of my friends bottle fed. Every woman in my culture nursed their many babies.  I honestly thought their husbands participated in the bounty of their bosoms like mine did. (You just did not talk about private things in that culture.)

To this day, I believe that every man that wants to suckle in those cultures does. These are cultures where the woman exists for her husband. They almost worship them. The men are real men. You could never accuse them of infantilism! They are lords of their homes and take providing and protecting their families as a high spiritual duty. He works hard and carries a tremendous amount of responsibility to provide physically and spiritually for his household. They believe, “He will answer to God.”  No one questions his  manhood or his decisions, let alone says “no” to them. This is not out of fear, but out of reverence for their position. The wife serves him gladly.

So for all those years I never talked about our private life, but I certainly had nothing to hide. What a culture shock it is to find out that many people consider adult suckling taboo, even more taboo than adultery. I am still finding it hard to fathom. I have had to make an effort to understand how someone can accuse a man who enjoys the breast of his lover and the bounty it provides as childish or weak. Even in my awakening to common US culture where the breast is found so appealing among men, I can not see how enjoying them in their fully functioning state can be frowned upon. Honestly, I think the people who find it unnatural are ignorant to the reality of what the bosom has to offer. 

As my children grew and I was no longer nursing them, we made a half hazard effort to keep my milk going for him. We did not keep a schedule. We took my milk for granted. It was many years before it dried up completely. Life was busy and we just moved on.

In November of 2008, we decided to re-induce. It was then that I found out how odd people think this is. (OK, I admit I should have known, but I am not a fan of TV so my reality does not come from there.) After more Internet research, I found out that it was not completely rare in this culture after all, at least not among women who nurse their babies. I think people who do it just do not talk about it. Of course, I am one who tends to enjoy my ignorant bliss.