Eco-breastfeeding
Recently we read that some in the Church don’t like eco-breastfeeding, or at least don’t see any need for it in marriage preparation. I wrote the following to a person who was experiencing this opposition.
I would like to sit down with such persons and say something like this. I am sure you are interested in the health and well-being of children, especially the children of the poor. How much would you be willing to invest in a baby food that is the most excellent food that can be invented, a food that actually changes in composition according to the needs of the child, a food whose quantity actually increases as the child wants more of it, and so health-protecting that its universal use would save the lives of 1,500,000 babies each year? Further, the natural process of transmitting this food to the child benefits the mother as well as the child, giving both mother and baby long-term as well as short-term benefits. Moreover, these benefits are dose-related; the longer they are received the better. Not only that but if the natural process of transmission is done at a natural, baby-led frequency, it postpones the return of the mother’s fertility. And the cost of this wonder? Nada. How can anyone who is genuinely interested in child welfare not be in favor of breastfeeding? And how can anyone who comes to recognize, after appropriate education, that only the frequent suckling of ecological breastfeeding provides extended breastfeeding as well as extended infertility, be opposed to the teaching of ecological breastfeeding? It truly is God’s own plan for baby spacing and baby care. Think about it!
John F. Kippley
Sex and the Marriage Covenant