Admiring Fellow Mammalian Mom’s
I am currently nursing a 16-month-old with molars coming in. Before he was born, I nursed his older brother until he was two and a half.
I know that breastfeeding is not for everyone, and that is totally good. I’m glad everyone has a choice in the matter.
For me, nursing my babies has had its challenges but there have also been moments that were absolutely beautiful, memories I will cherish forever. Providing for my children with just what I can make with my body is pretty incredible.
In the more cringe worthy moments when the nights become quite late and one of my children had me up for hours doing feats of acrobatic splendor with one of my nipples in his mouth, I grasped at some higher purpose. Searching for some neat comparison that might give me strength to continue on with my ocean — Ujjayi — breath, to calm my nerves and possibly his too, so we can drift into that state of utter relaxation we are after, sleep, oh glorious sleep.
I think on my human ancestors and siblings, with dirt floors and straw mattresses. Of people living in tents and under lean-tos and inside caves. Surely, they were — and are — no more comfortable than I, have gotten no more precious sleep and yet they persist and provide for their children.
And there I am, still awake with a baby in my lap… so I think of my ancestors and siblings of the four-legged variety, the wolves and tigers, how they live in harmony with their environments, subsisting wholly from what their bodies and communities provide, whether feeding infants milk or through the work of hunting and gathering.
I think of the whales whose forebears left the ocean only to return again after developing mammary glands, and the bats feeding their children hanging head down from cave ceilings and the rafters of barns.
Surely other animals have their own challenges, which they persevere through to care for babies who can then grow strong. Nature has surely also provided me with adaptations that can help me survive bleary eyed days and sleepless nights. I imagine love to be on the tip top of that list of adaptations.
So how do they do it? The whales and the bats and the other beautiful creatures who feed babies with mammary glands.
Whales
Buoyant among the ocean waves, whales feed their babies from two inward nipples located within milk slits. The mom’s nipples release from the body after being nudged by their baby’s forehead.
Since they are in water and whales don’t have lips, by some not fully understood mechanism, the milk squirts from the mother’s nipple into the baby’s mouth.
Bats
Most bats have just one pup per year but some may have multiples. In some species pregnant mothers gather together in the late spring to give birth and share childcare.
While others watch over their children, bat moms forage for food for themselves and return to nurse their pups. In order to find their baby tucked in among dozens of others, a bat mom will use sound and scent to locate her child.
This video from National Geographic shows how a Lesser long nosed bat finds her young.
Kangaroos
Kangaroos give birth to immature babies after as little as a month of pregnancy. When they are born a baby kangaroo is very small, pink and wholly unprepared to face the world — ranging in size from a grain of rice to as big as a bee. After birth, the baby crawls up their mama’s belly to her pouch where it can stay for more than a year, or until they no longer fit nursing from nipples located therein.
Platypus
Platypuses, endemic to eastern Australia are venomous, egg laying, bill-beaked, beaver-tailed monotremes, part of the oldest living order of mammals which both lay eggs and produce milk. Having no nipples, female platypuses secrete milk through sweat glands and the babies suckle milk from specialized mammary hairs.
Orangutans
Orangutans, one of our closest known relatives in the animal world, may breastfeed their young until they are eight or nine years old depending on food availability, making them champion among mammals as far as the length of their nursing relationships. When food is scarce orangutan parents are able to lean back on breast milk as a food source and keep their babies well fed.
I am in awe and owe a deep respect and gratitude to these mothers. They raise their babies the best they can despite many challenges. When researching animals, it is inevitable that you will come across coverage of the human impact on the environment and the additional challenges we humans impose on our fellow mammals.
The Guardian reported that one study found, that since the beginning of human civilization, a staggering 83% of wild mammals were estimated to have been destroyed, in large part due to the raising of livestock. And yet we humans are just a small part of the overall living community of the Earth.
Time spent nursing a young one has been a great time of reflection for me. Hours spent watching the wind blow the pine tree behind our home, thinking about our place on the Earth and how we can better provide for those we love.
Each day there are opportunities to make better decisions in support of the ecological community on which life depends, to reciprocate with the planet that is our home, the Earth and the beautiful creatures we share this world with.
With open-minded contemplation of each animal, each life form, each ecosystem, we can find a teacher. But because of our disproportionate impact on the natural world, those teachers need our protection, our voices and our kind attention in order to survive.
