Bureaucracy Makes War on Community {Intro}

I try to stay away from the online battles that take place on blogs and bulletin boards. There are many reasons for this, but suffice it to say that if I make a comment, I try to stick to the less controversial subjects or simply leave a compliment unless it’s concerning a subject I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about.

This changed yesterday momentarily, but then I quickly realized the fruitlessness of my involvement in such a debate, and I have now resolved to continue with my former methodology, which is to stick to my own corner of the internet and be content. {This, by the way, is also how I view life, which is why I fill my gas tank once a month. But I digress…}

I want to go over yesterday’s debate here, in my corner, where I feel very safe and have had some time to think and grow in wisdom. First, I will explain exactly what happened and give a little history.

I am on an email list for BabyCenter. I’ve gotten to where I don’t “need” said emails as much as I did early on, but suffice it to say that the site offers helpful emails and newsletters that are customized by a child’s age. I receive one for each child. These newsletters always contain what they call a Burning Question, which is essentially a link to their online debate boards. They try to have a new topic each week.

This week’s topic was: Should moms be allowed to share or sell their breastmilk*?

I was interested in this topic for one reason: I have suffered lactation failure twice in a row. This means that I do not make enough milk to feed my babies, and doctors and lactation consultants alike have not been able to help me. I once pumped all day, and it didn’t add up to even half an ounce.

Shortly

after having E., I supplemented him with formula {after the 9-day stint in the NICU due to dehydration, of course, where he was fed mostly through IV} because we didn’t think it wise to spend around three dollars per ounce aquiring breastmilk from a milk bank, and I didn’t have any trusted friends who were breastfeeding at the time.

When I had A., the situation was a bit different. She was on formula supplementation in the beginning, but when she was about eight-months-old a couple of my friends had babies, and they graciously pumped for me when they could and so I was able to also give A. real human milk.

I almost wept when my first friend offered. I loved nursing and had been so disappointed that it wasn’t A.’s sole source of nutrition {I had hoped the second time would be different}, and it meant so much to me that a friend would be generous in this way. But, you see, this was really basic Christianity at work. She was rich in milk, and I was very, very poor.

Needless to say, I found it interesting to discover that this week’s Burning Question was not only covering a topic that was dear to my heart, but that there was a hint that a group of people would wish to make such forms of generosity illegal. So I want to analyze the subject a bit over the next few days {excluding Sunday, of course}.

*Male readers may want to avoid this blog for a few days as it will be peppered with words such as “breastmilk,” “breastfeed,” etc.!