Yes, “Yellowjackets,” the wild show about cannibalism, gives us a realistic breastfeeding story
“Yellowjackets,” Showtime’s series about a high school girls’ soccer team whose plane crashes in the wilderness, has become known for pushing the envelope. For some lucky fans, podcasters and critics, the show sends envelopes — or rather, postcards— giving tantalizing clues about each week’s episode. Many of those episodes have been doozies. The story deals with trauma – including its lasting effects, lingering into adulthood for all of the survivors – teen pregnancy, murder and good old-fashioned cannibalism.
Even under ideal circumstances — not starving and frigid, in a place with medical care or at least, some other adults around — breastfeeding can be difficult.
Its latest episode “Qui” has been a long time coming, in many respects. The episode was delayed, causing viewers to have to wait a week. And one of the major storylines has been months in the making, since Shauna (Sophie Nélisse) discovered she was pregnant, having conceived with Jeff (Jack DePew, as a teen) who happened to be her best friend’s boyfriend, before the team’s fateful trip into the Canadian wilderness. Shauna’s pregnancy has come to term, without prenatal care, enough to eat — or much of a choice.
The birth scene, like we’ve come to expect from “Yellowjackets,” is realistic, bloody and difficult. But what comes next is the most painfully realistic of all. Shauna struggles to breastfeed and in doing so, the show lifts the curtain on a common yet still shamed experience of many parents.
“Yellowjackets” has never shied away from showing blood. In “Qui,” we get plenty of it, along with Misty (Samantha Hanratty), the ad hoc nurse of the group of girls, panicking, Akilah (Nia Sondaya) taking over and Taissa (Jasmin Savoy Brown) being a rock for her friend in the most difficult physical and traumatic experience of her young life. But the anxiety has only just begun for Shauna.
Her infant won’t nurse. He struggles to latch. He goes a long time — too long — without nourishment. And in a ramshackle, possibly haunted cabin in the wilderness, Shauna has nothing else to feed him. The plane crash survivors barely have enough to feed themselves, which is, as we know, the central problem of the story.
Sophie Nélisse as Teen Shauna in “Yellowjackets” (Kailey Schwerman/SHOWTIME)
A teen girl, who never wanted to be pregnant and had zero options, might not be so thrilled about bringing an infant into a world where everybody had to eat her best friend.
Even under ideal circumstances — not starving and frigid, in a place with medical care or at least, some other adults around — breastfeeding can be difficult, for reasons often out of a parent’s control. As NPR reported, in a story on the findings of a 2013 study, “Three days after giving birth, 92 percent of the new mothers said they were having problems breast-feeding.” Those problems included the very common issue of getting the infant to latch onto the breast properly, or an issue where babies may prefer a bottle or get “confused” by the switch between bottle and breast. For new parents, as NPR wrote, “44 percent said pain was a problem.” Soreness, tenderness and physical pain are to be expected in the first week or so of breastfeeding.
All these problems are typical. Yet “breast is best” used to be the message force-fed to new parents — including a decade ago, when I had a baby — furthering the guilt and anxiety when nursing doesn’t go as planned. Some parents feel inadequate in the face of such still persistent and often shaming messaging, which should be something more along the lines of “fed is best“— whatever way works for you and your family. Worrying about low milk supply is another common problem of breastfeeding, which can be exacerbated by expectations.
As a mother told Yahoo! in 2022, “Many women feel they’re just milk machines and are a gradual failure at it.” Such pressure can also contribute to postpartum depression. Anxiety makes everything worse, as Shauna discovers in the episode.
It’s remarkable that it took a show about cannibalism, a cult and a wilderness that may or may not be magical to realistically portray the very common story of breastfeeding.
The girls have been very excited leading up the birth, as has Shauna — which feels a bit jarring, like a rare misstep for the show. A teen girl, who never wanted to be pregnant and had zero options, might not be so thrilled about bringing an infant into a world where everybody had to eat her best friend. When Shauna struggles to feed her newborn, she feels like she’s letting everybody down, not just the baby. She has the pressure of her entire community counting on her — and only her — to ensure the baby’s survival, the infant multiple girls have been referring to as “our baby,” as if they’re playing house here in Canada. The girls also isolate Shauna, under the guise of giving her space to try to make the breastfeeding happen, but it only makes her worry worse.
Sophie Thatcher as Teen Natalie in “Yellowjackets” (Kailey Schwerman/SHOWTIME)The birth caused Akilah and Taissa to rise to the occasion. The struggle to breastfeed allows Nat (Sophie Thatcher) to as well. She brings Shauna tea, she tries to comfort and reassure her. As an adult in the present day, Juliette Lewis as Nat struggles to find her place, often using sex and drugs to try to numb herself. As a teen, however, Nat is a smart and empathetic leader and a stalwart advocate for Shauna. But the joyful moment of the baby finally latching is cut short.
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It’s remarkable that it took a show about cannibalism, a cult and a wilderness that may or may not be magical to realistically portray the very common story of breastfeeding. And yes, of course, the live birth and the subsequent struggle to breastfeed was all just a fantasy for Shauna. But it’s interesting that her fantasy includes a very real nightmare for many new parents. She knows enough to know it might be hard. And in doing so, “Yellowjackets” brings awareness to yet another aspect of the many-sided stone that is trauma, and shows the reality of another part of some women’s lives.
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