When my son was a few months old and my dear, dear friend Anastasia was at the end of her pregnancy, she turned to me one day and said, "I have a request."
"Anything," I said. After all, she had come over two or three times a week since my baby was born to help me as I finished a book. She'd done everything from returning phone calls to burping the baby to vacuuming. When she tipped over in the course of trying to rock my son, Skuli, she bonked her head rather than drop him, prompting me to wonder if it was fair to relegate administrative tasks and baby-care to a woman who was nine months pregnant.
"I want us to nurse each other's babies," Anastasia said.
"Okay," I said, immediately.
"They'll be milk-siblings," she said excitedly.
"Yeah," I said. "Wow."
In cases of necessity, I can see where this would be okay, but in this day and age of formula, necessity is very rare. First, I can't see why a mother would be anything but selfish about that bond her child. Second, I don't care how much you trust your closest friends, you still don't know with certainity that they do not carry any illnesses which can be passed through the milk, which is still a bodily fluid.
No comments:
Post a Comment