Black breastfeeding has a complicated history.... Dating black to the era of slave trade and the usage of wet nurses. Wet-nursing is a uniquely gendered kind of exploitation, and under slavery it represented the point at which the exploitation of enslaved women as workers and as reproducers literally intersected. A lot of slave babies died during slavery because they weren't breastfed. They were fed concoctions of dirty water and cows milk. Meanwhile, those children's mothers were giving white children their milk. When I came across “I Wish I Dried Up” a poem by Hess Love, I broke into tears. I felt such an immediate connection with my ancestors and the pain and loss they were forced to endure through wet nursing. In the authors words from an article interview she stated; “The story in this poem comes from a centuries-old voice — the collective voice of Black women whose stories were lost to the whitewashed retelling of history that excludes Black women and makes both their accomplishments and suffering invisible”. “The people who dismiss and disbelieve the history the poem speaks to can somehow believe in the beauty Shakespeare captured in his sonnets, but they can’t believe the horror I captured in mine”. I personally had never heard of wet nursing during the slave era until I saw it displayed briefly in a movie in my early 20s, it was completely disbelieving to know that I’d gone so long without knowing about this piece of my history. Thank you at Hess Love for this work of art. Everyone needs to hear this... #breastfeeding #breastfeedingmom #breastfeedingjourney #breastfeedingawareness #blackmomsbreastfeed #blackmomsbreastfeedtoo #blackmotherhood #blackmomblogger #momblogger #breastfeedingfacts #momsofinstagram #momsofinsta #withwillow #willowpartner #blackmomsmatter #breastfeedwithoutfear #blackbreastfeedingweek #blackbreastfeeding