'The comedy and pain of pumping breast milk at work'

The vision involved calm moments of connection, of gazing into her newborn’s eyes, of sunlight and white curtains fluttering at the windows of a nursery, where she would provide frequent nourishment from the comfort of a rocking chair. In Express Yourself: A ‘Mamoir,’ which Bowis wrote and is releasing this week as a self- published book after a successful Kickstarter campaign, alongside a London exhibition this weekend, she details the very personal and deeply painful journey she took, through a life- threatening labor, emergency caesarian section, difficult recovery, and then—perhaps most painful of all—the discovery that her milk supply was low and her baby’s absolute refusaltobreastfeed. And because she works as a performer—for example withexperiential theater company Punchdrunk—in a host of different venues and rehearsal spaces, she had to accept that expressing, for her, wouldn’t be a calm or private affair. To cope, Bowis began posting pictures of herself pumping at work to Instagram, where she received a stream of support that she says helped her keep going, even through dark moments. The photos, which she posted through late 2016 and early 2017, include shots of her expressing while dressed in a gown and ivy crown for a gig with her classical vocal group the MediaevalBaebes; in a rehearsal room at London’s Old Vic theatre, where she was working on the development of a new play (with her mother looking after her four-month-old); and dressed in dark eye-makeup andpearls to play a gangster’s moll at a venue behind the exclusive department store Harrods: A post shared by Jo Bowis (@boofbooflimoge) on Jan 14, 2017 at 11:12am PST A 2018 Unicef report on breastfeeding, subtitled A Mother’s Gift, for Every Child, says that higher rates of breastfeeding could save the lives of more than 820,000 children under the age of five each year. Unicef notes that, at a national level, “policies guaranteeing parental leave and the right to breastfeed in the workplace are critical,” as well asrecommendingrestrictions on the marketing of breastmilk substitutes. (I know Bowis and have seen her perform a one-woman routine in which she plays the concertina and sings a series of extremely filthy and hilarious songs; but I didn’t know about herlabor—during which she suffered massive blood loss and acute kidney failure, among other things—or about her breastfeeding experience until she launched this project.) This medicalization is heavily criticized in circles that argue it terrifies women and damagedtheir belief in their ability to cope with birth and parenthood. Since the1970s, there’s been a swing back, to the extent that in many countries women will experience the same ubiquity of breastfeeding (and the same potential for judgment if they choose not to orcan’tbreastfeed) that Bowis felt. The World Health Organization recommends every baby is exclusively breastfed for the first six months of life, and that women continuebreastfeedingincombination with other feeding until the child is two or older. Some firms, doing battle for talent via perks, offer evenmore, like shipping chilled or frozen breastmilk back home for nursing mothers on work travel. The Express Yourself exhibition will consist of a series of 12 large photos arranged in chronological order alongside text from the book explaining the significance of each image. Bowis will read from the book periodically throughout the exhibition during the day; the evenings will involve Prosecco and possibly, she says, impromptu concertina performances.