SUBSCRIBE
SUBSCRIBE
SLJ Blog Network +
  • 100 Scope Notes
  • A Fuse #8 Production
  • Good Comics for Kids
  • Heavy Medal: A Mock Newbery Blog
  • Teen Librarian Toolbox
  • The Classroom Bookshelf
  • The Yarn
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • About TLT
  • Reviews
    • Book Reviews
    • A to Z Book Lists
    • Book Review Policy
  • Teen Issues
  • Middle Grade Mondays
  • Programs
    • TPiB
    • Tech Talk
  • Professional
    • Teen Services 101
    • Things We Didn’t Learn in Library School
  • MakerSpace
  • Projects
    • #SVYALit
    • #FSYALit
    • #MHYALit
    • #Poverty in YA Lit

October 24, 2014 by Karen Jensen, MLS

Teen Issues: Teen Pregnancy, Teen Moms and Breastfeeding

October 24, 2014 by Karen Jensen, MLS   5 comments

Yesterday I talked some about periods in YA lit, in part because I had recently read 2 really amazing books that boldly mentioned periods. Also in part because it’s a topic we recently have been dealing with personally in my house because I’m a mom to two girls. The convergence of these two events, my lit life intersecting with my real life, got me thinking about a wide variety of topics. In fact, as a mom to girls, I spend a lot of time thinking about these issues and there is no shortage of interesting discussions to be had.

But as I was writing the post yesterday it brought to mind another conversation I have had with The Leaky Boob’s Jessica Martin-Weber. I know Jessica from our shared experiences with HG and it turns out that we are both very invested in talking about our culture and the way that it deals with girl’s bodies. Dress codes, menstruation, and sexual abuse are all things we talk about. It seems you can’t visit any news site at the moment and not find a conversation, for example, about another dress code challenge occurring and what these challenges say about our cultural feeling regarding girls and their bodies (and what it says about how we regard boys as well). And for Jessica, another one of those important issues is breastfeeding, and yes it too is related to the ways in which we talk about the female body.

SCROLL TO KEEP READING THIS POST

ADVERTISEMENT

ADVERTISEMENT

I started thinking about teens and breastfeeding largely because of my relationship with Jessica. Her goal is to help normalize breastfeeding so that mother’s who chose to can breastfeed their babies with the support that they need. And our conversation about teens and breastfeeding began years ago with the Mtv show Sixteen and Pregnant.

I remember watching an episode of the show where the mother went out to buy a can of formula and her and the teen father of her child were talking about how expensive it is. I wondered, how come no one is talking to them about the possibility of breastfeeding. And I was not asking this in a judgmental way, I actually breastfed exactly zero of my children for reasons. I was asking because it seemed to me that someone in the hospital ought to at least mention the possibility and the various benefits, including the fact that it would be cheaper for these financially struggling teens. Now it is entirely possible that the hospital did at some point talk to them about their infant feeding options and they just didn’t show that part on television, but I would argue that if this did happen and they didn’t show it well, that might just be part of the problem.

Some Teen Breastfeeding Statistics:
43% of teens initiate breastfeeding
95% of teen moms give formula by the 2nd week
(See: Goal – Teen Breastfeeding Success)

Then I started to wonder: Had I ever read about any of the teens in the YA lit I was reading breastfeeding their babies?  Had they even discussed it as one of their options? The truth is, I hadn’t really paid enough attention to say with any certainty that I hadn’t. But I also couldn’t think of any titles where I noticed that it had been discussed. (If you know of any titles, please share in the comments.) I would honestly have to re-read all the teen pregnancy novels I have read to really investigate how they approached infant feeding. It’s interesting too, though, that until I started really having these conversations with Jessica that it never even occurred to me to think about issues like how do we approach talking with teen moms about their infant feeding choices; It never occurred to me to look in the books I was reading to see how teens were having these discussions. Formula feeding is so normalized in our culture that it never even occurred to me as a reader to question what kinds of options and discussions the teen moms were having in the books I read. Which seems to prove Jessica’s point, we need to do better at normalizing the idea of breastfeeding.

Part of the problem is, of course, that teen pregnancy and motherhood is such a loaded issue. Nobody is really in favor of teen pregnancy, and yet we must still find ways to support and empower pregnant teens and teen moms without shame when it does happen. There is an excellent scene in the Gilmore Girls episode Christopher Returns that really touches on this point. The various Gilmore family members are together for a dinner and everyone is fighting about how 16-year-old Lorelai ruined her life and shamed the family with her pregnancy. And in the midst of it all sits Rory, the child who came out of that teenage pregnancy. Eventually Lorelai realizes the effect this conversation is having on Rory and reminds her that this fight is not about her – everyone loves and cherishes her – but that it is about Lorelai and Christopher and the decisions they made years ago. But it’s an interesting dynamic being angry and resentful of a teenage pregnancy and still trying to find ways to love the teenage moms and dads and babies that they bring into this world.

Reasons teen moms cited for not breastfeeding:
Highest: concerns that it will be painful
Inconvenient
Will be embarrassed
(See: Goal – Teen Breastfeeding Success)

The other part of the problem is, of course, that breastfeeding can be such a loaded conversation in our culture. There are debates daily it seems in the press about another woman being asked to go to the bathroom or put a blanket over the head of their baby while trying to feed them in public. For us in the U.S., breasts have become such a sexualized feature that we seem to have forgotten that one of their primary biological purposes is in fact to feed our babies. It’s another part of the lie that women’s bodies, and thus their breasts, are for men; we have forgotten that they are in fact superbly designed for feeding babies with health benefits to both mom and baby. It’s interesting to note that titillating pictures of celebrity side boob are shared with glee but should we perhaps see a bit of side boob while a mother is trying to situate a baby in the process of latching on it becomes a scandal.

SCROLL TO KEEP READING THIS POST

ADVERTISEMENT

ADVERTISEMENT

Even among those that do choose to breastfeed there is not universal support for breastfeeding in public in the way that is most comfortable for you and your baby. Read the comments of any online story about breastfeeding and even the support crowd will break out into arguments of yes breast is best, but for goodness sake woman stay at home or go to the bathroom, nobody wants to see your boobs in public. Except of course if it is in a sexual way, which the inconsistencies in Facebook’s practice of removing breastfeeding pictures while leaving a variety of other questionable but sexual breast shots up illustrate. Because we are so conflicted about female bodies, the ways in which we support – or don’t support – breastfeeding mothers is such a heated issue and it is wrapped up in shame, misconceptions, and cultural narratives that suggest that men have no self control and need to be protected from something that should in fact be a completely natural act. This type of thinking is as demoralizing to men as it is for women.

But back to supporting teen moms, part of that support should include making sure that pregnant teens and teen moms get the information they need to make the best decisions possible for them and their families, which just might include breastfeeding. So if part of our reading goals, particularly in contemporary fiction, is to help teens find their own stories echoed in the pages, then shouldn’t we be writing stories that de-stigmatize things like breastfeeding? The simple act of representation can be a powerful thing; it can help teens feel more comfortable in making these types of decisions for themselves as they see it in the pages of the books they read. Just as Margaret in Are You There God? can help teens feel more comfortable with their periods, seeing a teen mom choosing to breastfeed might help real life teen moms make that decision for themselves. It would be enlightening if in our teen pregnancy narratives we demonstrated that part of the struggle is figuring out what comes next, including how do we feed our babies, and we see our main characters at least investigating their options as part of their decision making processes. But it would be even more powerful to see a character casually mention breastfeeding her baby while trying to complete her algebra homework.

The truth is, whatever your personal feelings about teen pregnancy may be, a pregnant teen who chooses to keep her baby needs support in order to find ways to successfully complete an education that puts them in the best possible position to help better support and raise their families. Breastfeeding may just be one of the tools that helps them do that. Because breastfeeding advocates like Jessica are right, helping to normalize breastfeeding in American culture would make it easier for more mothers to choose breastfeeding and get the support that they need, including teen moms.

Goodreads has a list of 318 YA lit titles that deal with teen pregnancy
The book covers shown in this post are YA titles that feature a teen pregnancy, they may or may not contain discussions of breastfeeding.

Filed under: Breastfeeding, Teen Issues

SHARE:

Read or Leave Comments

About Karen Jensen, MLS

Karen Jensen has been a Teen Services Librarian for almost 30 years. She created TLT in 2011 and is the co-editor of The Whole Library Handbook: Teen Services with Heather Booth (ALA Editions, 2014).

ADVERTISEMENT

Related Posts

August 2021

We Need to Talk: An Interview with Wade Hudson, Cheryl Willis Hudson, and Brendan Kiely By Lisa Krok

by Karen Jensen, MLS

February 2021

Helping RevolTeens Fight the Mental Health Crisis, by Christine Lively

by Karen Jensen, MLS

February 2021

Sunday Reflections: The Things We Won't Buy, a Reflection on Generation Z, Conscious Capitalism, and "Cancel Culture"

by Karen Jensen, MLS

November 2020

The Death Penalty in YA Lit

by Karen Jensen, MLS

November 2020

Have Some Teen Slang, By Teen Contributor Riley Jensen

by Karen Jensen, MLS

ADVERTISEMENT

SLJ Blog Network

100 Scope Notes

Watch The Yarn LIVE with Kate DiCamillo at ALA!

by Travis Jonker

A Fuse #8 Production

Fuse 8 n’ Kate: Anatole by Eve Titus, ill. Paul Gadone

by Betsy Bird

Good Comics for Kids

Suee and the Strange White Light | This Week’s Comics

by Lori Henderson

Heavy Medal

More Mock-Newbery Titles Needed: Share June Suggestions Now

by Steven Engelfried

Teen Librarian Toolbox

Jane Austen, Cowboys, and Comics, a guest post by Rey Terciero

by Amanda MacGregor

The Classroom Bookshelf

The Classroom Bookshelf is Moving

by Erika Thulin Dawes

The Yarn

Trying Something New: SPEED ROUND w/ Marla Frazee, Doug Salati, Dan Santat, and Amina Luqman-Dawson

by Travis Jonker

ADVERTISEMENT

Related Articles on SLJ

YA and Middle Grade Reads for "Game of Thrones" Fans

Happy Pride! 26 LGBTQIA+ Titles for Teens

19 Webcomics To Keep Kids and Teens Engaged

15 Titles to Help Students and Families With College Prep

9 Books about Zines for Teens and Tweens

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Danielle says

    October 24, 2014 at 2:37 pm

    I just flipped through a new Orca Soundings book with a pregnant main character. It's “The Way Back” by Carrie Mac and the fact that the baby is being breastfed is mentioned several times.

  2. Anonymous says

    October 24, 2014 at 9:17 pm

    My sister was a teen mom who breastfed my niece and even got permission for our mother to bring my niece during lunch so she could breastfeed.

  3. Teen Librarian's Toolbox, Karen says

    October 25, 2014 at 1:20 pm

    Danielle, thank you so much for letting me know about this title. That is awesome to hear.

  4. Teen Librarian's Toolbox, Karen says

    October 25, 2014 at 1:20 pm

    That is great to hear. I am glad that your sister got the support she needed.

  5. Elisabeth Epperbarry says

    October 26, 2014 at 4:55 am

    Breasts wouldn't even exist if infants didn't need them for survival.

ADVERTISEMENT

Archives

Follow This Blog

Enter your email address below to receive notifications of new blog posts by email.

This coverage is free for all visitors. Your support makes this possible.

This coverage is free for all visitors. Your support makes this possible.

Primary Sidebar

  • News & Features
  • Reviews+
  • Technology
  • School Libraries
  • Public Libraries
  • Age Level
  • Ideas
  • Blogs
  • Classroom
  • Diversity
  • People
  • Job Zone

Reviews+

  • Book Lists
  • Best Books
  • Media
  • Reference
  • Series Made Simple
  • Tech
  • Review for SLJ
  • Review Submissions

SLJ Blog Network

  • 100 Scope Notes
  • A Fuse #8 Production
  • Good Comics for Kids
  • Heavy Medal
  • Neverending Search
  • Teen Librarian Toolbox
  • The Classroom Bookshelf
  • The Yarn

Resources

  • 2022 Youth Media Awards
  • The Newbery at 100: SLJ Celebrates the 100th Anniversary of the Award
  • Special Report | School Libraries 2021
  • Summer Reading 2021
  • Series Made Simple Spring 2021
  • SLJ Diverse Books Survey
  • Summer Programming Survey
  • Research
  • White Papers / Case Studies
  • School Librarian of the Year
  • Mathical Book Prize Collection Development Awards
  • Librarian/Teacher Collaboration Award

Events & PD

  • In-Person Events
  • Online Courses
  • Virtual Events
  • Webcasts
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Advertise
  • Subscribe
  • Media Inquiries
  • Newsletter Sign Up
  • Content Submissions
  • Data Privacy
  • Terms of Use
  • Terms of Sale
  • FAQs
  • Diversity Policy
  • Careers at MSI


COPYRIGHT © 2023


COPYRIGHT © 2023