Symbiotic Period Series

To mark the end of international breastfeeding week, I’m sharing two data drawings I made representing Cye’s newborn period. I recorded all the times I breastfed Cye, beginning December 21 until mid March.

Each row is a day, each column is an hour. The blue sections with light blue dots are times that I breast fed Cye. The darker area shows night (sun down) and the orange section represents daylight period. Framing the composition are remedies for low milk production, fenugreek and fennel, and symbiotic animals: aphids and ants. While most data is represented and collected with the purpose of analysing, predicting, and optimising, this data collection is about observing the gradual emergence of circadian rhythm, curiosity about what patterns may arise without interference, and a desire to capture and represent cherished moments of Cye’s fleeting infant hood.

My admiration and respect to the dedication and flexibility, with each family finding their approach to infant feeding, which is sometimes painful, often exhausting, but always demanding: whether it be breast feeding, pumping, formula or some hybrid. And as always thanks to @kensingtonmidwives for their at home support and @lalecheleague

Ninth Editions and I are donating 10% of sales to Le Leche League Canada who provide free support for new mothers. To feed Cye with my body was a soft transition after the period of pregnancy, sharing one body, a period of symbiosis.

The second chart, beginning in mid February ending in early March is less precise, I stopped recording the length of feed and quickly jotted down each feed which is represented as a white dot. In this version the time bends around the corner, the dark areas are feeds after sundown, which gradually shrink as the days get longer. The Red dots are hours from 12am-12pm and the blue dots are hours from 1pm to 11pm. While the first chart is easier to read and more logical, this one represents the way time feels with a newborn, a never ending string of interconnected hours that bend and join the next day. The yellow and black dots in the centre represent the overlapping of two bodies, the joining of Cye and I through feeding. In the second chart I value less the ability it to interpret the data, although its easy to observe his feeds getting more space out as time passes, and instead make a devotional image about maternal love using information as ornament.

- Margaux Smith