Natural Family Planning International

. Both biological acts have an impact upon the family and society. When the two persons, husband and wife, remain together in faithful marriage, both family and society benefit. Children do much better in all facets of their lives when they have their two parents living together in the same household. We all probably know people who claim the divorce of their parents was one of the worst events in their lives.

Breastfeeding likewise can have a significant impact, physically and emotionally, on the health of an individual and the family and thus upon society… Experts tell us that how a mother cares for her child during the first three years of life can have a tremendous impact upon the health of our society. God in his wisdom helps to ensure this care during most of the first three years of life through prolonged lactation.

Sheila Kippley
Breastfeeding and Catholic Motherhood
Sophia (800-888-9344) is offering a 25% discount to any order for Breastfeeding and Catholic Motherhood (paperback and eBook) during World Breastfeeding Week, August 1-7.  Offer expires Aug. 7, 11:59 PM.  Use promo code WBW25 when ordering.  Get this book for yourself, a priest, a seminarian, an expectant mother and religion teachers.

. Scripture denotes God’s love for his people by referring to both acts. In the Old Testament, God’s loving care for his people is compared to the loving care of a nursing mother for her child (Isa.66: 12-13). In the New Testament, a husband’s love for his wife is compared to Christ’s spousal love for his Church (Eph. 5:21-33).

. Both acts involve love through intimacy, physical closeness, and emotional bonding. The marriage act is for babies and for bonding. Breastfeeding is also for babies and for bonding.

. Both acts are associated with rightful pleasure. God made both acts pleasurable and good to ensure that the race would continue. Thus husband and wife would want to come together in the marriage act, and the mother would want to stay with and nurse her baby.

Sheila Kippley
Breastfeeding and Catholic Motherhood
Sophia (800) 888-9344) is offering a 25% discount to any order for Breastfeeding and Catholic Motherhood (paperback and eBook) during World Breastfeeding Week, August 1-7.  Offer expires Aug. 7, 11:59 PM.  Use promo code WBW25 when ordering.  Get this book for yourself, a priest, a seminarian, an expectant mother and religion teachers.

. Both acts are necessary in God’s plan for the continuation of the human race. Both acts are normally essential for life. The marriage act is needed to create new persons and to help the bonding of the spouses, and the breastfeeding act is needed for the survival of those new persons and for the bonding of mother and baby. It’s true that today science can create babies without the marriage act, and we can also feed babies without the mother. The latter is sometimes even necessary for the life of the baby and thus a great good. Frequently, however, it is done primarily for the convenience of the parents, and this unhappy practice has become the social custom in many cultures. Because breastfeeding is so uncommon, we tend to forget the important role it should play in feeding and nurturing infants and young children

. In both acts, a woman gives herself bodily: in the marriage act, to her husband, and in the breastfeeding act, to her baby. The woman’s giving to her husband should not detract from her giving to her baby. Likewise her giving to her baby or child should not detract from the love shown to her husband. Love is not exclusive or limiting. There is no restriction. The relationship that a woman has with her husband and with her baby are obviously different, but both relationships involve giving and loving. Neither relationship should detract from the other. A good husband appreciates his wife’s important role as mother in nurturing his children. In addition, breastfeeding, once established, becomes such an easy activity. The mother can converse with her husband, be affectionate, and share in his interests and activities and still be with and nurse her baby.

Sheila Kippley
Breastfeeding and Catholic Motherhood
Sophia (800-888-9344) is offering a 25% discount to any order for Breastfeeding and Catholic Motherhood (paperback and eBook) during World Breastfeeding Week, August 1-7.  Offer expires Aug. 7, 11:59 PM.  Use promo code WBW25 when ordering.  Get this book for yourself, a priest, a seminarian, an expectant mother and religion teachers.