Advent and Pregnancy, Mary and Breastfeeding

So I had this half-baked idea in my brain about how advent could be considered a celebration of pregnancy. It begins with Mary and Joseph, and Zachary and Elizabeth, being visited by an angel who tells them they are going to have babies. (Jesus and John the Baptist, respectively.) That pregnancy, not birth, is the beginning of the story in two of the gospels seems significant to me. I also remember being pregnant during advent. I think most Christian women who have experienced pregnancy, during advent or not, have pondered what Mary's actual experience might have been like. Both advent and pregnancy are times of waiting, planning, preparing, excitement, and anxiety.

In my planning and preparing this year, however, I've run out of time to fully flesh out these ideas. Instead, I'll share a few links which had gotten the idea rolling around in my brain.

I also had wanted to write about how Christians used to view Mary breastfeeding Jesus as a powerful image of both physical and spiritual nourishment and sacrifice, but that sadly, sexual repression and the sexualization of the breast  in the 19th century quashed that and now women get harassed for breastfeeding in church (in some places.) So there's some of that here, as well.

Mary, the Mother of God by Rachel Held Evans
Why I’m Glad Matthew’s Infancy Narrative Isn’t Literally True and Jesus was NOT Born in a Manger by James F. McGrath
Where was Jesus born? posted by Mike at The Aleph and The Omega

Did Paul Invent the Virgin Birth? by James D. Tabor

The Birth of Jesus, Part IV. The Two Versions of the Birth Story by John Shelby Spong

Mary Breastfeeding Jesus: Christmas's Missing Icon via Religion News Service by David Gibson

Breastfeeding in Church: A Picture of Christ's Sacrificial Love, by Ruth Engelthaler, and Breastfeeding in Public: A Christian Father Speaks Up, anonymous, both posted at Peaceful Parenting

Modesty and Hating Oneself: The Darker Side by Dianna E. Anderson