Infidelity

Cusk uses the concept of infidelity at several different times in her memoir to describe emotions pertaining to childcare and motherhood, and to compare the mother-child relationship with romantic love. When she stops breastfeeding her baby, the baby’s father takes over bottle-feeding her; Cusk catches a glimpse of the two of them together and compares this experience to having “witnessed an infidelity” (108). This idea draws an emotional picture of her feelings of jealousy at the thought of losing the closeness she developed to her baby through feeding her by passing this task to her partner. Cusk also examines two fictional women who have committed infidelity — Harriet Pringle and Emma Bovary — in terms of their relationship to motherhood, considering how this is connected to and reflected in their romantic attachments.

Breastfeeding

Cusk explores the subject of breastfeeding at length with regards to societal expectations and standards surrounding...