Ecological Breastfeeding: It’s Eco. It’s Logical. by Maureen Armendariz
It’s Eco:
God’s plans always have a unity about them. He gave us this glorious earth and he gave us the means to care for it. A mother who nurses her baby whenever he wishes to be nursed, day or night, is part of that plan.
Human milk is efficiently produced without any fuels or raw materials, except a few hundred extra calories taken in by the mother. Sure, it’s old hat info to a seasoned nursing mother, but if I stop and really think about that, it never fails to blow me away. An eco-bf mom maximizes the eco-benefits of nursing… fewer canned baby foods to worry about, fewer stained baby clothes to toss, fewer disposable menstrual products in the landfills, fewer trips to the doctor even into toddlerhood thanks to mom’s continued ‘liquid vaccine.’
And that’s just some of the “ecology” in ecological breastfeeding!
It’s Logical:
The late Herbert Ratner, a Catholic physician and a major force in the formation of La Leche League, wrote very eloquently on the logic of nursing. In my favorite passage of his he writes that when God was composing the 10 Commandments it didn’t occur to Him to add one: Thou shalt nurse thy offspring. Given a hungry, crying baby in the arms of his new mother with breasts full and overflowing with milk, He felt sure the implications were too obvious for even us backwards creatures to miss.
Why bounce, tickle, walk, sing, ad nauseum when what a baby wants is to be at his mother’s breast, frequently? Nursing a baby is logical; eco-breastfeeding a baby is brilliant, lining up a child’s needs with the simplest, most efficient, and sweetest method of meeting those needs.
“A newborn baby has only three demands. They are warmth in the arms of its mother, food from her breasts, and security in the knowledge of her presence. Breastfeeding satisfies all three.” ~Grantly Dick-Read
Writeen by Maureen Armendariz
www.breadwithhoney.blogspot.com
God’s plans always have a unity about them. He gave us this glorious earth and he gave us the means to care for it. A mother who nurses her baby whenever he wishes to be nursed, day or night, is part of that plan.
Human milk is efficiently produced without any fuels or raw materials, except a few hundred extra calories taken in by the mother. Sure, it’s old hat info to a seasoned nursing mother, but if I stop and really think about that, it never fails to blow me away. An eco-bf mom maximizes the eco-benefits of nursing… fewer canned baby foods to worry about, fewer stained baby clothes to toss, fewer disposable menstrual products in the landfills, fewer trips to the doctor even into toddlerhood thanks to mom’s continued ‘liquid vaccine.’
And that’s just some of the “ecology” in ecological breastfeeding!
It’s Logical:
The late Herbert Ratner, a Catholic physician and a major force in the formation of La Leche League, wrote very eloquently on the logic of nursing. In my favorite passage of his he writes that when God was composing the 10 Commandments it didn’t occur to Him to add one: Thou shalt nurse thy offspring. Given a hungry, crying baby in the arms of his new mother with breasts full and overflowing with milk, He felt sure the implications were too obvious for even us backwards creatures to miss.
Why bounce, tickle, walk, sing, ad nauseum when what a baby wants is to be at his mother’s breast, frequently? Nursing a baby is logical; eco-breastfeeding a baby is brilliant, lining up a child’s needs with the simplest, most efficient, and sweetest method of meeting those needs.
“A newborn baby has only three demands. They are warmth in the arms of its mother, food from her breasts, and security in the knowledge of her presence. Breastfeeding satisfies all three.” ~Grantly Dick-Read
Writeen by Maureen Armendariz
www.breadwithhoney.blogspot.com
Nice post. I did want to say that, although I love breastfeeding my 15 month-old daughter, I did my share of swaddling, walking, rocking, singing, shh-ing, jiggling, listening to radio static/hairdryer/vacuum cleaner for hours, etc., all while nursing! Breastfeeding on demand was and is indispensable for our daughter's comfort, but it was by no means a panacea. Our daughter just did not adapt gracefully to life outside the womb. It took many, many months and lots of different strategies to find the happy girl we enjoy now. The advice I received during our difficult hours seemed to be either "shut the door and walk away" or "just nurse her, and she will be happy." I couldn't do number one, and number two didn't quite work that way. I want other new mothers to know that the breastfeeding relationship is not always beautiful and perfect at the start. That's okay. Persist! (Even if you have to hold your child and use a pacifier (eek!) because she doesn't want milk right then. Confessions of someone who has blazed that trail!)
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