Mom I Am

I couldn't find an author to credit for this poem, so whoever you are, thank you! This is humorous and right on. Enjoy, and enjoy your weekend!!

Dr. Seuss for Nursing Moms

Would you nurse her in the park?
Would you nurse him in the dark?
Would you nurse him with a Boppy?
And when your boobs are feeling floppy?

I would nurse him in the park,
I would nurse her in the dark.
I’d nurse with or without a Boppy.
Floppy boobs will never stop me.

Can you nurse with your seat belt on?
Can you nurse from dusk till dawn?
Though she may pinch me, bite me, pull,
I will nurse her `till she’s full!

Can you nurse and make some soup?
Can you nurse and feed the group?
It makes her healthy strong and smart,
Mommy’s milk is the best start!

Would you nurse him at the game?
Would you nurse her in the rain?
In front of those who dare complain?
I would nurse him at the game.
I would nurse her in the rain.

As for those who protest lactation,
I have the perfect explanation.
Mommy’s milk is tailor made
It’s the perfect food, you need no aid.

Some may scoff and some may wriggle,
Avert their eyes or even giggle.
To those who can be cruel and rude,
Remind them breast’s the perfect food!

I would never scoff or giggle,
Roll my eyes or even wiggle!
I would not be so crass or crude,
I KNOW that this milk’s the perfect food!

We make the amount we need
The perfect temp for every feed.
There’s no compare to milk from breast-
The perfect food, above the rest.

Those sweet nursing smiles are oh so sweet,
Mommy’s milk is such a treat.
Human milk just can’t be beat.

I will nurse, in any case,
On the street or in your face.
I will not let my baby cry,
I’ll meet her needs, I’ll always try.
It’s not about what’s good for you,
It’s best for babies, through and through.

I will nurse her in my home,
I will nurse her when I roam.
Leave me be lads and ma’am.
I will nurse her, Mom I am.

Poem - Happy Mother's Day!

Pregnancy_010 by bethykae


Happy Mother's Day to each and every hard working, laughing, loving mother out there. May every day be filled with the recognition and gratitude that mothers deserve! My gift, a Rumi poem (don't be swayed by the title, there is a moving reference to mothers). Also, head over to Seeker's Guidance for a wonderful poem by Baraka Blue, "To Mothers". Enjoy!


Joseph in Prison

Joseph in prison asked a fellow prisoner,
"When you leave here, your affairs will prosper
with the king. Please mention me to him
and try to obtain my release."

One prisoner cannot free another prisoner,
and except for rare cases, every human being
is a prisoner, waiting.

Joseph asked a low, prickly shrub
like camels graze on, for help,
and he was punished for it.

The prisoner forgot Joseph's name completely,
and Joseph spent several more years confined.

In bright sunlight, don't ask a bat for directions.
If you're an ocean storm, don't look to heat-mirages
and sand for assistance. Dont' make a brace
from rotten wood.

God punished Joseph, or seemed to.
Actually He totally absorbed him
in such an intimate joy that
the dungeon disappeared.

There's no more restricted place
than the bloodwalls of the womb,
yet in there God opens a window
into the Presence, and your senses grow.

They blossom out of the body.
The delight is so profound in the womb
that you never want to leave.

You pull towards your mother's spine,
and away from the labia door.


The way of spiritual treasure is inward.
Don't look for it outside in property or wealth.
Setting means nothing. One man sits ecstatically
in a bare stone nook. Another is sad
in a beautiful rose garden.

At the wine-feast the drunkard
is most happy when he passes out.

Look at his smile. Be a ruin.
This body-house is full of imagery
Demolish it. Those fantasy art-works
keep you from union.

But the beauty of the pictures
comes from the radiance of the soul!

That light-filled water produces
the bubbles that obscure its surface.

That which blocks us from seeing
is from a deep vision-source inside.

Let your bats fly into that sun
and lose their batness!

(Mathnawi, VI, 3400-3431)

Poem - Morning Song

Mother and Child by Koshyk

Morning Song

Love set you going like a fat gold watch.
The midwife slapped your footsoles, and your bald cry
Took its place among the elements.

Our voices echo, magnifying your arrival. New statue.
In a drafty museum, your nakedness
Shadows our safety. We stand round blankly as walls.

I'm no more your mother
Than the cloud that distills a mirror to reflect its
own slow
Effacement at the wind's hand.

All night your moth-breath
Flickers among the flat pink roses. I wake to listen:
A far sea moves in my ear.

One cry, and I stumble from bed, cow heavy and floral
In my Victorian nightgown.
Your mouth opens clean as a cat's. The window square

Whitens and swallows its dull stars. And now you try
Your handful of notes;
The clear vowels rise like balloons.

-Sylvia Plath (1932-1963)



There was a study released in Pediatrics on Monday that says if American women were to breastfeed exclusively for six months, that nearly 900 infant lives and billions of health care dollars would be saved each year. Only 12% of American women exclusively breastfeed at six months. This article in the Washington Post details many of the benefit of breastfeeding and mentions how birth practices affect breastfeeding outcomes, "The pediatrics academy says babies should be given a chance to start breast-feeding immediately after birth. Bartick said that often doesn't happen, and at many hospitals newborns are offered formula even when their mothers intend to breast-feed. " That first hour or so is so important for many interactions between mother and infant, breastfeeding included. Ask for help from your midwife or hospital staff if you are unsure of how to get the baby on, it really can ease the way for so much if the baby can have at least one go at the breast in the first hour or so. Breastfeeding is often viewed as a choice in this country, but in terms of public health, it really should be looked at similar to seat belts, you are far better off with it than without it.

I also wanted to share a link of a UK publication entitled Mum and Muslim magazine. They have just come out with their first issue and there are some interesting articles up. Go check it out!

Poem & The Sunnas of a Newborn Child

Baby Song

From the private ease of Mother's womb
I fall into the lighted room.

Why don't they simply put me back
Where it is warm and wet and black?

But one thing follows on another.
Things were different inside Mother.

Padded and jolly I would ride
The perfect comfort of her inside.

They tuck me in a rustling bed
-I lie there, raging, small, and red.

I may sleep soon, I may forget,
But I won't forget that I regret.

A rain of blood poured round her womb,
But all time roars outside this room.

-Thom Gunn (1929- )

What an amusing poem! I love how the baby wants to go back inside. It seems like that sometimes doesn't it! Here are some links about babies:

• There is a new website containing lectures by Shaykh Nuh Ha Mim Keller's esteemed wife Umm Sahl. Particularly pertinent to this blog is Lecture 5.1, the sunnas of a newborn child. It's wonderful and thought provoking. To hear this lecture and others visit www.raisingmuslimchildren.com.

• "Do Toxins Cause Autism?" a recent op-ed by New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristoff looks at the recent studies linking our chemical exposures to increasing rates of autism in children. He briefly discusses the new bill proposed in the Senate that strengthens the Toxic Substances Control Act. Apparently of the 80,000 chemicals in our environment the EPA only tests 200! Kristof's last paragraph contains excellent advice for pregnant women and parents. "The precautionary principle suggests that we should be wary of personal products like fragrances unless they are marked phthalate-free. And it makes sense — particularly for children and pregnant women — to avoid most plastics marked at the bottom as 3, 6 and 7 because they are the ones associated with potentially harmful toxins."

Poem - Woman to Child

Young Mother by Charles Fred

Woman to Child

You who were darkness warmed my flesh
where out of darkness rose the seed.
Then all a world I made in me;
all the world you hear and see
hung upon my dreaming blood.

There moved the multitudinous stars,
and colored birds and fishes moved.
There swarm the sliding continents.
All time lay rolled in me, and sense,
and love that knew not its beloved.

O node and focus of the world;
I hold you deep within that well
you shall escape and not escape -
that mirrors your still sleeping shape;
that nurtures still your crescent cell.

I wither and you break from me;
yet though you dance in living light
I am the earth, I am the root,
I am the stem that fed the fruit,
the link that joins you to the night.

- Judith Wright (1915-2000)

I love how this poem illustrates the beginning of the lifelong mother - child bond. It does start with the mystery of conception and pregnancy doesn't it?


Here are a couple of audio links for your listening pleasure:

• A new book on the history of childbirth has just come out entitled,"Get Me Out: A History of Childbirth from the Garden of Eden to the Sperm Bank" by Randi Hunter Epstein MD. You can listen to an interview with the author here. Many of the callers have had home births. The author presents compelling historical evidence for change in maternity care brought about through women themselves. Something to ponder!

• And to illustrate the above author's point, we have an interview from a Portland, Oregon radio station KBOO with two birth advocates from South Dakota. South Dakota is in the midst of a grassroots movement to legalize midwifery care and home birth in their state. They discuss midwifery and the politics of birth. The issue is framed and presented as a reproductive choice, similar to the abortion debate. It's fascinating!
  

Poem - To a Ten Months Child

Still Pregnant After all These Weeks by Hexodus

This is for all of you mothers who have had the distinct pleasure of going past your due date. Enjoy!

To a Ten Months Child

Late arrival, no

One would think of blaming you

For hesitating so.

Who, setting his hand to knock

At a door so strange as this one,

Might not draw back?

Certainly, once admitted,

You will be made to feel

Like one of the invited.

Still, because you come

From so remote a kingdom,

You may feel out of place,

Tongue-tied and shy among

So many strangers, all

Babbling with a strange tongue.

Well, that's no disgrace.

So might any person

So recently displaced,

Remembering the ocean,

So calm, so lately crossed.

-Donald Justice (1925- )

Also please head over to Rickshaw Diaries to read her post on her upcoming labor. She is extending a lovely gesture.