hi alen,
children in dreams often represent,potential,our hopes & dreams for the future,we usualy project these onto our own children for real,
seeing as they were aborted,this may be a ref to the above mentioned potential,hopes & dreams etc which have not been given enough nourishment for them to be realised,hence using a theme you are familiar with,feeding ,teaching children etc in real life,perhaps you have had to sacrifice some aspects of your own personal life,this has stopped you from realising some things about yourself & life,if you care for a baby,love it,feed it,it will thrive usually,so it is with your own hopes & wishes,
when you mentioned the boat passing by,i thought of that saying,"ships that pass in the night",refering to some sort of breif encounter of the relationship kind,
of course the dream may just be your thoughts on the work you do with children.
these are just my own thoughts,they may trigger something or not,
hope this is of use.
rgds mikey