Extended breastfeeding featured in movie

[La Sombra]

This gave me warm and fuzzies, especially with the recent bad press breastfeeding has gotten!

So I watched this movie years ago (ten or more) when it came out, but I recently re-watched the Canadian director Atom Agoyan's the Sweet Hereafter, which is a really haunting tale of a school bus full of children in a small Ontario town that careens off the road, killing most of the children inside. (!) It's based on an American novel of the same name.

Anyway, the cover of the movie is a mom, dad and toddler snuggled in bed together. The mom is naked and her breast is partially exposed; the toddler is laying at breast-level. Before I even watched the movie, I saw that I thought: that is a nursing mamma! And they're co-sleeping! Well, later in the movie one of the characters recalls that his three-year old daughter was bitten by a black widow as they all lay in bed together. He says that to calm her down, his wife nursed her. Then there's a scene of the mom nursing a little naked three-year old. It was so beautiful and moving! I seriously wanted to write a letter to Atom Agoyan and thank him for that scene. It wasn't even in the original book, so he definitely added it himself. Nice to see extended nursing portrayed so naturally in a film.

Hope this is the right forum for this!

[RoseDuperre]

I saw this movie too, years ago. I totally didn't remember that! I didn't even remember the poster, oddly, though I do now! I'll have to rewatch (though man is it gutwrenching).

[Jennifer Z]

Along the same lines, I am wanting to rent "Clan of the Cave Bear" and watch it again for the same reason. I am re-reading the whole Earth's Children series and they talk about extended breastfeeding, even as a way to mark how old a child is. (the birth year, the walking year, the weaning year...but I can't remember if that was the 3rd or 4th year any more). I wonder if they showed that in the movie.

[KMomto2xy]

Originally Posted by Jennifer Z

Along the same lines, I am wanting to rent "Clan of the Cave Bear" and watch it again for the same reason. I am re-reading the whole Earth's Children series and they talk about extended breastfeeding, even as a way to mark how old a child is. (the birth year, the walking year, the weaning year...but I can't remember if that was the 3rd or 4th year any more). I wonder if they showed that in the movie.

They don't show it in the movie, and the book is ambiguous. In one it's the birth year, walking year, weaning, in another it's birth year, nursing year, walking year, weaning year. So 3-4. It definitely does not advocate solids for babies under 3 .