Switching Sides

"Not the other breast," my French husband whispered to me during a wedding ceremony last week, as he saw our baby finishing up on one "side." Breastfeeding has come a long way in France, but a few societal barriers remain. And nursing in a church seems to be one of them. I've breastfed in just about every public place possible here: on the bus, in restaurants, parks, and cafés. Even in front of my French in-laws. But as I left the ceremony mid-feed to continue on the chilly stone steps outside, I couldn't help feeling like I'd come up against a wall. Like when I mentioned La Leche League to a French mother I saw breastfeeding her one-month old. (LLL has the same bum rap here that yoga did six or seven years ago. People just assume it's a cult. That said, you should probably avoid attending "free" yoga classes in Paris.)  Once I was sitting down, though, enraptured by my baby's eager mouth, "always thirsty for the pure spiritual milk," I decided to think positively. After all, my husband actually understood now how breastfeeding works: switching sides and all. And my in-laws now knew first-hand what nursing on demand meant. So in some small way, I was showing the unsuspecting what breastfeeding was all about. Maybe one day it would even make it to Wii Fit. A Balance Board has got to be warmer than church steps.

John Krasinski and Jenna Fischer as Jim and Pam Halpert. [Online image] 2010.

Let 'em Cry, Let 'em Cry, Let 'em Cry!

As a new mother in Necker's maternity ward, I just assumed that my roommates (I was there long enough to have two) both happened to have severe emotional disorders--or hearing problems. What kind of person would just sit there chewing on tepid pintade while her newborn screamed? But my roommates were not the odd balls out in French motherhood. Apparently the French still believe that you can spoil a baby. Give into her caprices now (i.e.: pick her up), and you'll spend the next eighteen years with an obnoxious, whiny, manipulative monstre.
My Parisian gynecologist summed it up when she saw me flinching on the examination table as my two-month-old hollered in his stroller, just out of my reach. "Does that really bother you?" she asked as she continued the post-natal exam. I realized she was talking about my son's cries.
Yes, I'm afraid it does. Sucks to be human.  

Vivien Leigh and Clark Gable as Scarlett and Rhett Butler. [Online image] 1939.