Originally posted at The Root. Written by SPARK Organizer Bianca Campbell.
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It was out of love, compassion and the promise of better opportunities that my mother fed me baby formula.
Being new to America and struggling to breast-feed so soon after her cesarean section, my mother made desperate phone calls to my grandmother back home in Jamaica for support. The international calling cards (remember, this was in the 1980s) would expire just when I went into a screaming fit. After two stressful weeks, though she initially wanted to stick to Jamaican traditions—including nursing—she switched to formula. American advertisements had promised her that she could avoid the pain and trials of nursing and buy her daughter the best nourishment the world could offer.
It’s a common story.
Read more Mother’s Day: The Resilience of Black Breast-Feeding
