Selling Sex to Nursing Moms

Thanks to Feel Your Boobies tons of women, including myself, have thought to themselves “Maybe I should just check.” The name is nothing to be taken sexually, it’s a memorable reminder to women that self examination is important for breast cancer prevention. My cousin is now a mother of one with another on the way and happy to be able to breastfeed after her battle with cancer years ago. She found the lump thanks to feeling her boobies and I know I examine myself more frequently than I otherwise would if it weren’t for the knowledge I gained from her experience and FYB. As for the other breast cancer organizations their aim isn’t to oversexualize women it’s to come up with clever names that stick with people so that the cause stays relevant in their minds. I think you took an unnecessary jab at these organizations.

WOW. Did you do any research at all on these organizations before you made your short-sided assumptions? BECAUSE OF these groups, many, many women were able to detect lumps themselves, and get diagnoses of breast cancer early on to get treated, when without them, it may not even have been found at all. Before you claim that these “campaigns that don’t improve the lives of women with breast cancer in any meaningful way, but do not-so-incidentally trivialize breast cancer and disenfranchise women who aren’t interested in being hotties,” maybe you should so some actual research and ask women with breast cancer what they ACTUALLY think of these organizations. Instead, you’ve made broad assumptions about them base solely on their names. Their names have nothing to do with sexualization or seduction, and by no means are they dismissing women who don’t want to be “hotties” through this ordeal. They are simply about awareness, a reminder to women to do frequent and regular self-exams, because they DO save lives, which if you read any of the testimonials people have sent in, you would know that. Clearly, you haven’t noticed, but they do work. You’ve made completely unjust attacks on these organizations.

It’s not like breasts have a switch so that they go from sexual to functional when you give birth! Nursing in public is obviously very different from going topless at the beach, so I was very comfortable doing one of those things–even though I’d never have done the other. I don’t understand is the author’s complaint that there’s lingerie for nursing moms, as though perhaps we have to choose between having health care and feeling sexy. Why shouldn’t nursing mothers have access to nice lingerie for the months or years that their breasts have dual purposes? Presumably, some nursing moms have a pre-existing relationship with an adult that they would like to maintain while forming this new relationship with a child….

Until your period returns the hormones of nursing suppress the hormones of your normal cycle. Once you ovulate you can become pregnant again. Although some women experience the return of their normal cycle when the baby is four months old, the majority have their period and normal sex drive return when the baby is eight months old at the same time that the consistancy of their milk changes.

I was simply talking the way I talk and reminding my friends to do exactly what I was doing — not something clinical, but something I do daily because it’s natural, not sexual

hm. don’t have kids, do you? because it is, oddly, like there is a switch, and my breasts are entirely different to me than they were in the misty far off “before times.” As I wait helplessly for my most recent child to wean, I cannot even conceive of being touched there by my husband. That’s TMI, and others may feel differently; I’m just saying your comment sounded sort of tin-eared, and your “presumably” is not presumable.

The amount of time it takes for one’s cycle to return while nursing varies *widely* and is influenced by things like whether or not you nurse a lot at night, pump during the day, give bottles/pacifiers, etc. Milk doesn’t change with the return of fertility (at least not permanently; some women’s milk changes slightly in taste at different points of their cycles) although it does undergo some changes in composition over time.

It’s also important to note that the first “period” you have when your fertility returns may or may not be a real period in that you may not have ovulated beforehand, but you also might have, so nursing and not having had a period yet is *not* a reliable form of birth control.

Just a note: the Shulchan Aruch codifies a two year MINIMUM for breastfeeding, with a maximum of four years for a healthy child and five for a child who is weak or sickly.

And I second “Straight From the Heart” as a great book on the subject of breastfeeding halacha.

Not everyone follows the Shulchan Aruch, some follow the Mishna Brurah.

“And not the I-own-my-own-sexuality kind of sex; the I-am-an-object-see-me-giftwrapped kind of sex. ”

Why are these two “types” of sex mutually exclusive? What if a woman owns her own sexuality by giftwrapping herself for her lover because this makes her attraction that much more powerful?

And who are you to tell nursing women what will “really” make their lives better? Nothing cures mothering-induced depression and exhaustion better for me than a few good sex sessions with my husband. I can’t remember the last time a discussion of family leave policies brought me to orgasm the way my husband can.

Huh? I exclusively nursed all 4 of my kids for the first 8 months and my cycle always resumed directly after I went to the mikveh for the first time after the birth. Hormones vary widely.

As the founder of Mommylicious Maternity and coming from an Orthodox and Hasidic Jewish family from Jerusalem I strongly disagree that our company is selling sex as it relates to nursing. Your accusations are bold and have clearly have no valid research behind them and are flat out gross. Yes, we sell sexy lingerie, in fact tons of it to pregnant mothers who would like to feel sexy but if you take an accurate look at our nursing items we sell nursing items that would make a mom feel sexy, stylish and cute. We aren’t selling trying to portray nursing in a pornographic light. As a mother of 5 children I personally wanted to feel pretty in my undergarments, not like a milk cow in a bra up to my chin. The vast majority of women would agree that they like to feel beautiful especially after going through such a life and body changing experience such as giving birth. We sell many other beautiful pajamas that are also comfortable for mom along with a full line of apparel. Just because you are pregnant doesn’t mean a woman cannot retain her sense of style and feel glamourous. I know first hand that Orthodox and Hasidic still desire this as well. I guess people will write anything to get people to read.