1) With both pregnancy and ecological breastfeeding, the mother provides continuous nourishment for her baby.
2) With both pregnancy and breastfeeding, the baby has close physical contact with the mother’s body. After leaving the womb, a baby continues to receive much needed touch and close physical contact from the mother through the breastfeeding. A baby has a need for his mother’s presence just as much as he has a need for her milk.
Just as babies were nourished and nurtured in the womb of their mother during pregnancy, so they were meant to be nurtured and nourished at their mother’s breasts after childbirth.
3) With both pregnancy and breastfeeding, amenorrhea is a natural condition. God provided a natural baby spacer through nine months of pregnancy and many more months of breastfeeding. In His wisdom, God knows mothers need a break—both physically and emotionally. Unfortunately most mothers do not know about ecological breastfeeding, and they nurse in such a way that their fertility returns soon after childbirth. If 100 American mothers follow the Seven Standards of ecological breastfeeding, they will average 14.5 months without any periods after childbirth.
4) The most important point is that the oneness of mother and baby during pregnancy continues with the oneness of the mother and baby during breastfeeding. This oneness of the nursing mother and baby should be encouraged and protected both by society and by the Church.
Next week: The mother is irreplaceable.
Sheila Kippley