Chocolate Milk

One of my waitresses became pregnant, and as the father was betrothed to another she would be facing the birth of her child alone.  Her family was not pleased about her pregnancy so Mac and I took her in to live with us.  Diane worked at the Pizzeria for as long as possible, then helped me around the house after I gave birth to my second child.

I was at work when Diane went into labor. We had already assembled what she would need for her stay at the Bequia hospital, and when the time seemed right Mac took her there to have her baby.  When I went to the hospital the next morning I was told that Diane had been sent by ferry to Kingstown, her delivery had proven too complicated for the Island midwife.  I called the Kingstown General Hospital and was told that with the help of forceps Diane had successfully given birth to a baby boy.

The following morning I got on the ferry and made the trip across the channel to see Diane, carrying fresh clothing and some food.  I knew she would appreciate the visit, without family or the child’s father in attendance she was bound to be lonely.  She had tried to stay upbeat during her pregnancy but I knew she was unhappy, and the ordeal of being taken to the mainland to deliver would have added to her misery.

I found Diane in the maternity ward at the general hospital and she was fuming over the way she was being treated by the nurses.   Bequians viewed all mainlanders with suspicion, feeling that they looked down on people from the Grenadines.  Diane claimed that the nurses were mean to her because she was from Bequia, and had put her in a private room because they didn’t like her.  I pointed out that a private room is where special people are put and that she should be thankful but she took it as an insult.

Diane’s breasts had yet to produce any milk and her baby boy was howling to be fed.  His cries were making my breasts ache, I was still breast-feeding Rachel and they were very full.  I carefully washed myself, then picked up Diane’s baby and started to feed him.  He was hungry, and grew mercifully quiet as he gulped the milk he wanted.

While I was feeding the baby a nurse entered the room and had a fit when she saw what I was doing.  She tried to snatch the baby from me, telling me that white people can’t feed black babies.  I pointed out to her that black women had fed white babies for centuries and that breast milk was breast milk. Did she think Diane’s breasts would produce chocolate milk?? The nurse was truly upset and wanted me to stop feeding the baby, it just wasn’t right for a white woman to behave in such a way.

When the nurse left the room sucking her teeth with indignation, Diane turned to me and said, “See? Mainlanders really don’t like us people from the Grenadines.  I want to go home!!”