(1/4) “With my older son, sometimes he will nurse, then  hug my breasts and kiss my nipple and say how cute the breasts are and that he loves them. It weirded me out in the beginning, but now I find it endearing. I’m a survivor of childhood sexual assault, and at first it felt very uncomfortable to me to have him show affection to them; it gave me this creepy crawly feeling. But I let him do it, because I didn’t feel like there was anything abnormal or strange about him doing that. It was my hang up, and I didn’t want to put that on him, because I really try to strive for body normalization. Breasts are not sexual. We sometimes use them in that way, but that’s not what they are designed for. My childhood stuff didn’t really impact my early breastfeeding journey. I know it can with a lot of women, but it didn’t with me. And I think that may or may not be related to the fact that there was no sexualization in that area, and I was very, very young and I don’t remember. But I know that for some women it can really have an impact.” 

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Ashlan Taylor at Portland Birth Stories
Portland, Oregon
www.ashlantaylor.com