Breast-Feeding

Usually a newborn babe is brought to the breast as soon after birth as possible. For the infant it is their first experience of eating and drinking, and for the mother it is a privilege to provide sustenance for which there is no chemical or immunologic substitute. Breast milk is a vital, natural resource available in almost unlimited supply, provided demand feeding is encouraged. Breast-feeding is the most cost-effective and health-promoting activity mothers can undertake during their children’s early years of life. Through this intimate, everyday act bonding is solidified, forming the essential foundation for relational and family health. Early feeding patterns that respect the child’s needs require parental altruism and stamina. Suckling at the breast is the beginning of a trusting and nurturing relationship, forming the primal context in which we understand God’s constancy and love: “Yet you brought me out of the womb; you made me trust in you, even at my mother’s breast. From birth I was cast upon you; from my mother’s womb you have been my God” (Psalm 22:9-10).

As an exclusive dyad, mother and child together weave a new cord to replace the one that was severed at birth. Fathers and siblings contribute their own colorful threads, which become more significant as the infant gradually leaves the breast to explore the world independently at longer intervals. Parenting is a lifelong task that seeks to balance dichotomous needs—drawing together and pulling apart, offering nourishment and protection as well as affirming independence.

There are only two lasting bequests we can hope to give our children. One of these is roots; the other, wings (Carter, in Hodgson, p. 82). Breast-feeding secures the first, making the second procurable. With well-established self-esteem and secure spiritual identity, we have the freedom to climb, putting our feet in high places where the wind invites our wings (Psalm 18:33).

Breast-Feeding as Affection

Bonding is not an instantaneous event, but a gradual process of claiming each other and establishing understanding, love and loyalty. Bodily contact—the skin-to-skin exploration of the scent of babe and mother’s milk—is vital for animals in recognizing each other and no less so for humans. Unique among mammals, the human mother and child nurse within distance of the eye’s focal range. Like marsupials, human offspring are born “prematurely,” that is, almost a year before they can eat or move independently. The almost continuous contact required during early months of breast-feeding can be regarded as a continuation of gestation. In the delivery room the breast helps to bridge the abrupt change of worlds. Arriving cold and wet into blinking brightness, the babe can be soothed against the warm breast. Breast-feeding accomplishes not only nutrition but vital communication of caring and affection through touch. Institutionalized infants who are seldom held fail to thrive despite seemingly adequate nutrition, indicating that as we hold babies we feed their souls. There are volunteers who visit neonatal hospital units specifically to hug needy babies. “The eternal God is your refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms” (Deut. 33:27).

Touch starts as a reflex, a little fist grasping around your finger and the instinct to draw the child to your breast. It becomes a healing language we all understand, smoothing the furrows in our hearts. Softening the ripples of anxiety, a mother’s hand traces over her newborn’s face, wrinkled and covered in greasy vernix—the ointment acquired in the womb. Common sense tells us that what we crave as infants, what is the source of our earliest sensations, is a need that continues throughout our lives, be it the healing touch of a physician, the handshake of a brother or the embrace of spouse or child.

Nutrition and Immunity

Parenting, like breast-feeding, involves not only protection but a translation of nutrients and information from the world to the child. Parents actively select enriching experiences and assist their children in defining emotions and in guiding responses. Interpreted and refined by the parent, nourishment and immunity are presented in an easily digestible or understandable form.

In keeping with the baby’s needs, breast milk is differentiated. “Foremilk,” received when the infant begins to suckle, is dilute and thirst quenching. For the reward of a hungry baby’s persistent suckling there is the richer “hindmilk.” In contrast to consistently composed formula, breast milk prevents excessive caloric intake; if the baby is simply thirsty he can stop with the foremilk. The advantages of less readily digestible formula is that its use prolongs the interval between feedings. This may be convenient for the mother, but it ignores the infant’s need for apt milk and frequent interaction. Breast milk is easily digested, leaving soft stool without an offensive odor. Likewise regurgitated breast milk is not unpleasant like formula vomitus. Diapering and laundry duties have a sweeter air about them when the infant is breast-fed.

Breast milk is ordered to human neurological growth. One of the most species-specific characteristic of human milk is the unique biochemical composition that assists the cerebral cortex to double in size in the first postnatal year. The breast also synthesizes neural chemicals that resemble placental hormones thought to influence sexual development and gender formulation. No doubt at this time we have only an infantile understanding of all that breast milk contains.

During pregnancy and through breast milk, a mother confers to her child the wisdom of her years, an immunologic heritage. The memory of countless victories fought against viruses and bacteria are passed on as antibody artillery and houndlike white blood cells that have been programmed to act on a specific scent of a past offender. Vaccines impart immunity by presenting a harmless invader that has the same scent as its dangerous cousin, arming the immune system for future attacks. Breast-fed babies have documented healthier, more allergy-free childhoods. In addition, some forms of cancer and diabetes are rarer in children who have been breast-fed as infants, presumably through immune-mediated protection. The Scriptures, analogous to breast milk, not only nourish our souls, bodies and minds but also provide us with armor and arms (Ephes. 6:17).

Indications and Support for Breast-Feeding

In the Third World, where illiteracy is significant, as in the growing poverty-stricken areas in North America, the cost, the possible contamination and the complexities of accurately measuring and mixing concentrated or powdered infant formulas make breast-feeding the only safe alternative. Unfortunately, formula companies adeptly market their products by providing free samples to hospitals and doctors’ offices. By distributing these gifts, the medical profession communicates the fallacy that “formula feeding is as good as breast-feeding.” The suggestion of supplementation undermines the confidence of the nursing mother and becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. The breast acts by a supply-demand quotient. As the mother removes the baby from her breast to the bottle, the breast responds to decreased stimulation by producing less milk. Bottle feeding both causes and “cures” the apparent lack of milk, replacing nature with technology. To increase lactation one needs only to allow increased nursing time.

Breast-feeding need not be discontinued in situations of maternal or infant illness. Even in cases of infections of breast or gastrointestinal tract, breastmilk continues to provide vital immunological resources and rehydration fluid with antidiarrheal properties. Care must be taken with regard to medication usage during breast-feeding. Chemicals in the mother’s bloodstream, including alcohol and nicotine, appear in breast milk and are absorbed from the baby’s intestines. Because an infant’s immature liver and kidneys have difficulty metabolizing and eliminating chemicals and because few medications have been formally tested in pregnant women, nursing mothers or infants, few reassurances can be given with certainty.

In recognition of the outstanding benefits of breast-feeding, the Canadian Paediatric Society recommends that infants be exclusively breast-fed for four to six months and weaned during the second year. The World Health Organization and the United Nations International Children’s Education Fund (UNICEF) have outlined specific directives to be incorporated into hospital maternity care in order to assist mothers in their attempts to breast-feed. La Leche League International began in 1956 as a pioneering group of mothers who had the courage to breast-feed despite widespread formula use and prior to the discovery of the immunological properties of breast milk. Today it provides a network of experienced mothers who assist with the practicalities of breast-feeding in almost every community.

Vital to the success of breast-feeding is the proper positioning of the baby and breast and the principle of feeding at the request of the baby (on demand) to encourage adequate milk supply. The baby can be weighed before and after feeding to reassure the mother of adequate milk ingestion. Documenting the progression of the baby’s weight gain is important especially after the anticipated weight loss in the early weeks. We are challenged by the mid-eighteenth-century philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s words “Would you restore all to their primal duties, begin with the mothers; the results will surprise you.”

Bottles, Laughter and Time

A mother with a babe at the breast appears as a closed circle—two people existing only for each other. This dependency is celebrated at satisfying reunions after even brief separations are felt in swelling breasts, a hungry tummy or anxious wondering. Mother and child yearn for another, not unlike God’s zeal for us or our thirst for him (Psalm 42:1-2). This circle opens, allowing a father to burp, bathe and change the newborn and a sibling to bring a diaper or toy, sing a song or sit for a story while Mother nurses. As weeks pass into months and breast-feeding is well established, the father and siblings can experience the satisfaction of giving a bottle on a daily basis. This creates an opportunity for a mother to occasionally exit without being anxious that the infant’s needs cannot be met by another caregiver. Ideally a small amount of expressed breast milk in a bottle, given daily in the evening, will not appreciably alter milk supply, especially if it is part of the routine. Later if the mother chooses to work outside the home, the infant will already be familiar with the bottle and will have fewer adjustments to make. The mother can still nurse in the morning and after work, maintaining her unique identity with the child despite the presence of secondary caregivers. Later, as the baby becomes interested in family foods, exploring tastes and fingerpainting with textures, family members participate by holding the spoon or offering the spoon to the child.

If “mommy” means primarily comfort, “daddy” means predictable fun. Laughter becomes as tangible as food passed between father to child. Sounds and words become invested with personal meaning even from birth, and little jokes are carried across the decades. “My little sparrow” became a term of endearment for a newborn who almost died from birth asphyxia; this reminded the new father that if God knows even when a sparrow falls, then his children are worth even more to him, so much that even our hairs are numbered (Matthew 10:29-31). During feeding parents can observe their children, drinking in their beauty—the unique curve of their ears and the pattern of hairs on their head.

Time is also a food that passes reciprocally between parent and child, persisting long after weaning in the form of reading aloud and jointly engaging in activities like running errands, walking, making crafts, building projects, cooking, learning computer skills, playing sports and gardening. Breast-feeding may involve extra time, but it means time with the baby and less time mixing formula and sterilizing bottles. All the positive interactions that occur with breast-feeding occur also with bottle feeding, provided the bottle is not propped up and the baby left alone. Breast-feeding is not a guarantee of good mothering, nor does bottle feeding rule it out.

The Case of Adoption

Adoptive mothers with sufficient motivation and support can breast-feed. Knowing the baby’s approximate due date, the receiving mother can actually induce lactation, even if she has never been pregnant or nursed a child before. If she faithfully expresses her breasts several times a day with a hand-held pump for two to six weeks before the baby’s arrival, her breasts will respond by producing milk, although perhaps only in small quantities. When the baby arrives, the adoptive mother can use a nursing supplementer—a small tube taped to the breast that adds formula by gravity while the baby is nursing. The breast still receives stimulation and is encouraged to make more milk while the child receives additional nourishment. Thus it is possible for an adopting mother to experience the intimacy and naturalness of breast-feeding, which may compensate her in some way for the missed experiences of pregnancy and birth.

Whether the birth mother breast-feeds in those early days of hospital recovery is a highly personal decision. As discussed in Miscarriage, completing the recognition of what she is about to lose may assist her in grieving, even though the intimacy of breast-feeding may reawaken ambivalence about her decision that must be legally finalized soon after birth. “Can a mother forget the baby at her breast, and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you! See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands” (Isaiah 49:15-16). “Her gift is of inestimable worth; her secret genetic talents are passed on to the child, and the child falls like a star into the arms of longing parents. “Praise the Lord. . . . Who is like the Lord our God? . . . He settles the barren woman in her home as the happy mother of children” (Psalm 113:1, 9).

For the adoptive parents who carry the torch of life onward, it is a task of claiming, naming, and protecting the flame. By comforting, nourishing and investing all of themselves they complete the love that others began. “Nothing is precious save what is yourself in others and others in yourself” (Teilhard de Chardin, p. 62). Spiritual and emotional nurturing establishes a heredity that is eternal—not transient like the legacy of DNA (see Conception), which alters or is lost as a branch of a genealogy comes to an infertile end. In welcoming and attending to the needs of children it is as if we are ministering to Christ himself (Mark 9:37).

Breast-Feeding as Pleasure

Cross-culturally there are remarkably different attitudes toward the breasts’ function and value—nutritively and sexually. It is a curious commentary on our own society that we tolerate all degrees of explicitness in our literature and mass media with regard to sex and violence, but the natural act of breast-feeding is taboo. There is a whole generation of women who as children never observed their own mothers nursing and consequently have invested their breasts with exclusively sexual value. Without the necessary modeling they find themselves embarrassed with even the thought of breast-feeding and often are unable to overcome their modesty even in private settings.

Nursing mothers need to be sensitive to the potential embarrassment of observers. Discretion can be the better part of valor. It may be easier and less offensive to others in the room to retire to a private place to get the baby started and possibly return with a lightweight blanket draped over a shoulder to conceal what might embarrass someone. Many mothers can nurse successfully with no one even surmising what is happening.

Although breast-feeding can be initially painful, over time and with proper latching of the baby breast-feeding becomes a pleasurable experience. This is mediated by two hormones. Oxytocin is released during the “letdown” or milk-ejection reflex and is experienced as a “pulling sensation” as the milk ducts contract. The “supply-demand” hormone prolactin is released in proportion to the duration of suckling. These hormones facilitate a meditative focus that for mothers who are usually whirling dervishes provides the necessary calm to hold their little one close in rapture.

Breast-Feeding as Service

Breast-feeding is an act of service as the mother respects and responds to the baby’s needs, putting aside her own agenda and enduring discomforts, interruptions, inconveniences and sleep deprivation. What is natural may not be uncomplicated or effortless. Despite all the sentimental expectations one may have of the breast-feeding experience, there can be many hurdles to overcome as mother and babe settle into the early weeks and months. Until the nipples become tougher and desensitized, breast-feeding may be initially uncomfortable. Excess milk leaking out of both breasts during feeding or spontaneously at night may require breast pads. The initial engorgement of the breasts that occurs in the early days as the milk comes in can be uncomfortable and presents a hard, stiff surface, making it difficult for the baby to latch successfully. After expressing by hand, the pressure is relieved and the breast softens. With time the breasts settle down and produce milk only at designated feeding times without the exaggerated responses of the early weeks. Time and maturity also dampen the oscillations of parental reactions, reflecting God’s constancy with us.

Many circumstances can make breast-feeding difficult to initiate. Operative deliveries, separation of mothers and babies during hospital confinements and overzealous supplementation with formula have been identified as major obstacles to well-established breast-feeding. Although babies will instinctively turn toward a breast, latch and suckle, successful feeding depends on appropriate positioning. To maintain the baby’s body and head toward the breast often requires supporting the baby on a pillow and using a hand to guide the baby’s head and shoulders. Breast-feeding is a learned skill, and solutions to problems that have been gleaned over generations are passed on through the “doulas” of La Leche League and lactation consultants.

Infants instinctively know when to stop, and they should be allowed to feed as long as they wish. Babies will spontaneously let go of the breast when satisfied. The first breast should be emptied before offering the second to prevent milk stasis and infections. In addition, if the babe exclusively drinks the thin, sugary “foremilk” by being switched prematurely to the other breast, colicky gas and hunger pains can be exacerbated. Routine supplementation is unnecessary, and especially in the early weeks it takes away from the infant’s time on the breast, resulting in decreased milk production. Also, early supplementation and use of pacifiers can result in “nipple confusion.” Infants use quite distinctive techniques to suckle on a breast versus an artificial nipple.

Early frequent feeding at the request of the baby is exhausting but essential for establishing the milk supply, if breast-feeding is to be successful. Usually a harmonious routine evolves over the first few months.

Adhering to a strict schedule by day, then forcing a baby to “make it through the night” resembles military training under spartan conditions of deprivation. There is no medical or psychological rationale for parent-controlled feeding. It is unethical for newborns to wait in hunger while the mother looks at the clock to determine if it is time for feeding. These infants cry but are unheard, their stomachs distending with swallowed air, their emotions utterly confused. Failing to meet the moment-by-moment needs of infants undermines the foundation of their trust in the world.

Consider God as he comforts and satisfies his children: “For you will nurse and be satisfied at her comforting breasts; you will drink deeply and delight in her overflowing abundance . . . be carried on her arm and dandled on her knees. As a mother comforts her child, so will I comfort you” (Isaiah 66:11-13).

The rhythm of “hunger-crying-response-satiety” reinforces the child’s confidence about his bodily sensations and the just and predictable world. Militant, rigid feeding schedules are a harbinger of the eating disorders that plague North American women. Anorexia nervosa is a life-threatening illness that occurs when a young woman denies sensations of hunger and derives masochistic pleasure from the control inherent in fasting.

The rigors of breast-feeding are not to be underestimated. Responding to a newborn’s needs results in sleep deprivation and exhaustion. As months pass, however, it is possible by feeding at more frequent intervals during the day that nighttime feeding will lessen. Ideally the baby should be in a nearby but separate room so that mothers do not inadvertently respond to every little noise. Making the clear distinction between day and night feedings can be accomplished by keeping lights low, voices quiet and saving play and talk for daytime. If night feedings draw a very minimal response, the nocturnal creature will change shifts, adjusting his activity pattern to match that of the family. Sudden prolongations between-feeding intervals in the early months are unwise. As in weaning, gradual changes are the least traumatic for everybody.

Weaning: Taking Wing from the Breast

Weaning is a milestone in the child’s development, an achievement of independence and the differentiation of self from mother. It is a transition that should be made in gradual steps to avoid not only engorged breasts, but inconsolable babies, and it should not be perceived as a time of punishment. It can be very satisfying if it progresses at the pace of the slowest member of the pair. Often children lose interest in the breast before a mother is ready to wean. Sometimes children are still very attached to the breast, relying on specific nursing times for reassurance, more so than for nutrition. Often a thumb or a soft toy becomes a more easily acquired source of comfort. It is possible to allow a toddler to breast-feed discreetly, as they are at an age when they can understand the need to wait for an appropriate time and place. Alternate forms of attention through interacting in play, reading or sharing chores should gradually replace the time spent feeding. “Instant availability without continuous presence is probably the best role a mother can play” (Bailey).

Breast-feeding is not incompatible with pregnancy. The birth of an additional child does not necessarily mean abrupt weaning is indicated. Nursing two children at once is possible and egalitarian, defusing sibling rivalry. Usually the older child needs very little attention at the breast; perhaps the option to nurse is enough. Holding on to our children longer than necessary can thwart their growth, just as can prematurely pushing them out into the world before they have the necessary confidence and skills.

When considering the motivations for weaning, one needs to examine societal pressures and the need for time away as a couple. In 1 Samuel, Hannah sensitively considers the needs of her toddler when she stays back from the temple, delaying the fulfillment of her promise because he is not yet ready to wean. Pediatrician William Sears states, “Early weaning is an unfortunate practice in western society. We are accustomed to thinking of breast-feeding in terms of months and not years. I have a little sign in my office which says early weaning is not recommended for babies” (La Leche, 250). We can experience God in “the ever-present now” as his love permeates daily life, flowing from breast and spoon, through laughing mouths, sparkling eyes just learning to read and in the taste of a child’s tears kissed into oblivion.

Strengthened and equipped by adequate nurturing, our children are released into the world to feed each other with the fruits of their daily work, sharing monetary wealth and the gifts of health and education with the nations of the world (Isaiah 58:10-11). As breast-feeding is a paradigm for the spiritual rooting of our identity and the nourishment we receive in God’s family and by Scripture, so weaning is analogous to being launched by the strength of our own wings, lifted by love, to explore and enrich the world.

» See also: Birth

» See also: Parenting

» See also: Pregnancy

References and Resources

L. Bailey in Promises for Parents calendar (Bloomington, Minn.: Garborg’s Heart and Home, 1990); B. T. Brazelton, What Every Baby Knows (Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley, 1987); P. Teilhard de Chardin, Hymn of the Universe (New York: Harper & Row, 1965); H. Hodgson, When You Love a Child (Minneapolis: Deaconess Press, 1992); La Leche League International, The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding, 5th ed. (New Market, Ont.: La Leche League International, 1991); V. H. Livingstone, “Protecting Breastfeeding: Family Physician’s Role,” Canadian Family Physician 38 (August 1992) 1871-76; V. H. Livingstone, “Too Much of a Good Thing: Maternal and Infant Hyperlactation Syndromes,” Canadian Family Physician 42 (1996) 89-99; J. M. Vickerstaff-Joneja, “Breast Milk: A Vital Defense Against Infection,” Canadian Family Physician 38 (August 1992) 1849-55.

—Carol Anderson