Buffy Sainte-Marie on the 'quite normal' experience of breastfeeding her baby on 'Sesame Street' in 1977
Buffy Sainte-Marie on why it was important for her to breast feed on 'Sesame Street'
Video Transcript
BUFFY SAINTE-MARIE: You know, I've had a real long career when it comes to thinking about what I would like people to remember about me. I was always trying to cover the base that nobody else was covering.
- What you doing, Buffy?
BUFFY SAINTE-MARIE: Feeding the baby. See, he's drinking milk from my breast.
The breastfeeding segments that we did on "Sesame Street" were quite, quite normal. I know lately it's quite inflammatory, you know, there's always somebody who has to sexualize it or weaponize it or something. But when I was in my second year of "Sesame Street," I discovered that I was expecting. And when my baby was born, I returned to "Sesame Street" and I was breastfeeding off camera all, you know, just throughout the day. I was doing two shows a day with a baby on my hip, so that's what happens.
I suggested to the producers, you know, could we do something on breastfeeding?
- That's a funny way to feed a baby.
BUFFY SAINTE-MARIE: Lots of mothers feed their babies this way. Not all mothers, but lots of mothers do.
The reason why I did that, really, was because when I woke up from delivering my baby, it was in the hospital. Over here on the table was a big basket of stuff from some formula company and I preferred to breastfeed. But the doctors didn't understand about breastfeeding. They had not learned it. The formula companies were putting a lot of money into education and, you know, in medical hospitals.
There's no money involved in breastfeeding. Like natural music, it's free. Therefore, this there's nobody making a fortune on it. So that's kind of the difference. And sometimes it's not as though there's somebody to blame for the things that you wish would change in the world. Sometimes, you know what? There's nobody to blame, so why don't I talk about it?
And as he gets older, he'll will need more and more different kinds of food to eat. But right now, this is just fine. He's drinking his milk.
- You know, that's nice.
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