The Breast Is Yet To Come

The Breast Is Yet To Come: Cartoons for Breastfeeding Moms

Introduction

Breastfeeding is one of the most amazing experiences a woman can have. Of course, babies don’t come with an instruction manual, so a mom’s early nursing experience can be very stressful, to say the least. 

Not only do women have to make it through nine months of pregnancy, but after the exhaustion and pain that comes with delivering a newborn, they are immediately charged with the responsibility of feeding a sometimes sleepy, sometimes ravenous, tiny human who leaks bodily products from both ends and may have little patience even if he’s just being burped between breasts.

When you add on the demands of older siblings (if there are any) or family members and friends who always have advice to share, it’s a wonder parents survive the first few weeks of a newborn’s life.

When we got the idea to write this book three years ago, we were driven by the maxim, laughter is the best medicine. However, given the stress just described, we wondered if moms and dads would have the bandwidth to step back and see the humor in what they were going through. We hope the answer to this question is yes because we would like mothers and fathers to know they are part of a wider community of proud though exhausted parents.

Throughout the book’s long gestation, we also wondered if potential readers would roll their eyes because one of us was born with a Y chromosome. While it’s true that Jan is the one who experienced the pain and pleasure of nursing our children, not to mention delivering them, both of us were active players in the struggle to get our little darlings to eat.

Both baby Bennetts approached nursing like it was part of the Middle East conflict. Our daughter, who entered the world attached to a pair of stainless-steel forceps, shrieked every time she was put to the breast. This went on for twelve days and nights until she decided to raise the white flag and nurse without causing a scene. Of course, this may not have happened without the able assistance of Tamara Buckley, a good friend and lactation consultant. 

A typical feeding went like this: The baby would be in her mom’s arms with both a nipple and a thin feeding tube in her mouth. The tube was attached to a pouch filled with breast milk that was hanging around Jan’s neck. At the same time, Howard was feeding Jan a sandwich he was holding up to her mouth. To round out the picture, he was simultaneously eating a slice of day-old pizza with his other hand. We called this the food chain.

Our son arrived three years later. And though his birth was more civil, he bit his mom’s nipples like a pit bull at a dogfight. This went on for more than a week until, with great reluctance, we realized that Jan’s sanity was more important than getting the little guy to nurse. Our tenacious son continued to chomp on bottle nipples for the next three months. Fortunately, silicon does not bleed when tortured by a barracuda. (This is the term used to describe babies that suck with great gusto.)

If being the father of two problem nursers did not qualify Howard to co-write the book, perhaps his profession would. Howard has been a pediatrician for more than forty years. He also has a keen eye for the comical nature of our day-to-day existence. 

Throughout his career, Howard has kept his eyes and ears open and has learned a lot about breastfeeding. In addition to spending time with postpartum nurses, he had the good fortune of working with Gay Ohlrich who was the nurse-manager at his office until she retired in 2015. Gay was an amazing nurse who had a knack for helping parents become confident caregivers. She was also a certified lactation consultant. Gay not only saw all of the breastfeeding moms at Howard’s practice, but the two of them talked regularly about what worked and didn’t work in various breastfeeding situations. Fortunately, most things worked.

Howard often jokes with first-time parents that early motherhood is more like a Stephen King novel than a Disney movie. He does this so parents don’t blame themselves when they’re knee-deep in the challenges of caring for a newborn. 

Jan has been a teacher for forty years. She has taught children from nursery school through third grade, both in the classroom and as an art teacher. She is adored by her students and parents and knows a thing or two about what it takes to raise a happy, healthy family.

The ideas for the cartoons came from our personal experiences as parents, stories from friends and family, and situations Howard faces every day at work. However, we needed an illustrator to make the book a reality. Luckily, we teamed up with the multitalented Amy Albright. In addition to being a life coach, Amy is a wonderful artist who made the finished cartoons look like the images floating around in our heads. 

This project was a labor of love, and we hope you have as much fun reading the book as much as we did putting it together.

Jan & Howard