Natural Family Planning International

    Probably the most important part of the biological oneness between mother and baby  is their ecological relationship:  what affects one affects the other.  We see this in the many health benefits for both.   By health benefits, I am including the emotional health benefits as well as the physical health benefits. 
   If breastfeeding is shortened and the mother stops nursing during the early weeks or months, then both she and baby lose the many benefits of breastfeeding.  The World Health Organization said it well:  “Mothers and babies form an inseparable biological and social unit; the health and nutrition of one group cannot be divorced from the health and nutrition of the other.”
   In addition, quite often the mother soon loses that physical intimate contact with her growing baby when she bottlefeeds. Rare is the mother who holds her baby during the early years when bottlefeeding. Rare is the mother who insists on doing the bottlefeeding herself and who takes her baby with her, but sometimes it happens.  The first couple John and I knew who took their baby with them to college faculty parties were bottlefeeding.  I admired them because they gave us support for what we were doing with our breastfed baby.

Breast milk or Mother
   The value of breastfeeding is heavily emphasized today.  Because so many mothers work, much attention is given to pumping milk at work and storing breast milk.  This is good, but what gets lost is the mother-baby biological oneness.  You can’t give a talk today without someone asking, “What about the working mother?”  While there are many mothers who have to work for the basic necessities and who would prefer being home with their baby, there are also many mothers who could stay home and choose not to do so.  The pressure today is for those latter mothers to leave their babies and little ones and earn money or follow their career.
   But babies do need their mothers.  The continuous contact with mom during the early years is the first step towards building a good foundation for life and future relationships.  God provides for this essential foundation through the presence of the mother.  How does He do this?  With breastfeeding.  The breastfeeding relationship ensures that the mother will remain with her baby.  As Maria Montessori stressed years ago, prolonged lactation of 1.5 to 3 years is good for the baby because it keeps the mother with her baby. 

Next week: More on this topic.
 
Sheila Kippley
The Seven Standards of Ecological Breastfeeding: The Frequency Factor, 2008
Breastfeeding and Natural Child Spacing, 2008, classic edition
Breastfeeding and Catholic Motherhood, 2005
www.nfpandmore.org

   Experts for years have stated that the presence of the mother is crucial to the development of her baby.  This fact is usually ignored today in a world which values the mother in the workplace, but it needs to be heard.
   Separation of mother and baby is commonly promoted in our society.  After all,  they say, babies must learn to be independent.  The baby should not cling to its mother.  Babies should learn to feed themselves with a bottle, pacify themselves with a pacifier, and sleep for the duration of the night.  This form of parenting, when it works, is very convenient for the parents, especially the mother who thinks she needs time to do other things.
   But is this what nature intended?  Does God have anything to say about this in his plan for mothers and babies?  Are mother and baby one unit or are they to be treated separately?  Is the mother as physically close to her baby during breastfeeding, especially during the early years, as she is during pregnancy?  Is there a natural biological oneness during breastfeeding as there was during pregnancy? 
   Many breastfeeding experts have stated YES to the last question, that breastfeeding is a continuation of pregnancy.  The only change is that the baby is now outside the mother’s body. 
 
There are three physiologic similarities between the two: pregnancy and breastfeeding. 
   1) With both, the baby is physically close to the mother.  With breastfeeding the baby is often carried on the mother’s body or is in her arms, but now both can interact with each other. 
   2) As with pregnancy, the breastfed baby is still receiving all his nourishment from his mother and this lasts for about 6-9 months.  After that time when other foods are slowly taken by the baby, the baby still receives much of his nutrition from his mother.
   3) The mother remains in amenorrhea (no menstruation) during breastfeeding as well as during pregnancy. Normally a mother receives more months of amenorrhea from breastfeeding than she does from pregnancy if she is follow the natural mothering program, i.e., the Seven Standards of eco-breastfeeding.

Enjoy this card.

Next week:  BF and the early years

Sheila Kippley
The Seven Standards of Ecological Breastfeeding: The Frequency Factor, 2008
Breastfeeding and Natural Child Spacing, 2008, classic 1974 edition
Breastfeeding and Catholic Motherhood, 2005
www.nfpandmore.org