Even without Ecological Breastfeeding the mother is irreplaceable, but it becomes more apparent with an extended pattern of breastfeeding. Here is what John Paul II says about the mother. “Women can never be replaced in begetting and rearing children….Women as mothers have an irreplaceable role.” (11th General Assembly of the Pontifical Council of the family, 1984)
“Children have a right to the care and concern of those who have begotten them, their mothers in particular.” In other words, the baby has the right to be cared for by its mother (“Women, Wives, and Mothers,” Family and Life, January 1995).
“Mothers have an irreplaceable role.” For the mother “to abandon these tasks in order to take up paid work outside the home is wrong from the point of view of the good of society and of the family when it contradicts or hinders these primary goals of the mission of a mother”…[The goals for the mother are to give care, love and affection to her children so that they] “may develop into responsible, moral and religiously mature and psychologically stable persons” (On Human Work, September 1981).
In speaking of that irreplaceable role of the mother and the right for the baby to be cared for by its mother, how does God provide for this? How does God in his wisdom ensure that the baby receives this kind of care? The answer is breastfeeding during the early years. In May 1995 the Pope recommended at least two years of breastfeeding. How many Catholics know that? Not many.
Sheila Kippley