For The Lockdown Babies
By Gráinne Evans – Maghera, Northern Ireland
“Sure you were only a baby” I’ll tell her when she asks,
About that time in photographs when everyone wore masks.
“You don’t remember the chaos when the world was forced to rest.”
enjoying a tender moment of tandem nursing
“You had all you needed in my arms and at my breast”
“You never even noticed” I’ll tell her then I’ll say,
“I held you as the weeks went by, we took it day by day”
“We were safe and happy, right where we needed to be”.
“I fed you snuggled in my arms, protecting you was key”.
“You were only a tiny baby” I’ll tell her and explain,
Why so many people were afraid, anxious and in pain.
“It wasn’t always easy, those isolating newborn days,
But feeding you flooded me with love, got me through the haze”.
“You were a lockdown baby” I’ll tell her when it’s time,
“I was your whole world back then, just as you were mine”,
“And now, though it’s just a memory, I still smile when I see,
A rainbow in a window, put there for you and me.”
and their four kids
Gráinne Evans is a mother of four and La Leche League Leader in the North of Ireland.
With four very different breastfeeding journeys, spanning eleven years, including breastfeeding a baby with a tracheostomy and five years tandem feeding, Gráinne is passionate about paying forward the invaluable support that helped her feed her own babies. In her spare time, she writes breastfeeding poems for her blog The Breast of Rhymes.
She hopes For the Lockdown Babies continues to resonate and reassure parents throughout the pandemic.
