For the second consecutive year, My Darling Doula has partnered with local nursing families, to promote a fuller, more nuanced narrative of the black breastfeeding experience. From a legacy perspective, it's important to document and tell our own stories for ourselves and as a gift to future generations. Telling our stories helps us evolve and grow beyond them; and the exposure to imagery has a profound impact on the way we view the world. We make our decisions based on so many factors, but we are not always aware of the great power that lies in what we see and how often we see it.
Breastfeeding is a topic that is rarely discussed openly in both mainstream and marginalized communities. Lost in the silence are diverse groups of people and their families who confront multiple historical, physiological and cultural challenges that make breastfeeding both difficult and painful.
If black nursing parents all bravely committed to feeding our babies whenever and wherever, and sharing our breastfeeding stories and images, an entire generation will be raised to view breastfeeding as the normal way of feeding human babies... and it is.
Meet Queen Mother Kayla...
Name: Kayla Jennings
Gender expression (preferred pronouns)? Female
Occupation: Breastfeeding Peer Counselor, Doula
Child's name? Sya Carter Williams
Age of child? 2
How long have you been breastfeeding? 2 years
How many children have you nursed? 2
Telling our stories, first to ourselves and then to one another and the world, is a revolutionary act.
