Breastfeeding and separation pangs

For nine months, the foetus, the baby, is in the womb of the mother – safe and secure. Then it is born and immediately a separation occurs. The baby is no longer a part of the mother’s body. It is in an alien environment.

And it cries. As it cries, it draws in its first breath unaided by the mother. But it is still in a strange world. When the mother holds it close to her heart, the infant becomes quiet again, for it is a rhythm with which the baby has been familiar for nine months.

And each time it drinks milk from the mother’s breast, it hears the rhythm again and is comforted. It knows at an instinctive level that everything is all right, that even though it is in a strange world, the rhythm and the comfort that it signifies is with it.

Also, the baby reconnects with the mother by drinking from the mother’s breast. This helps ease the separation.

Even for adults, a sudden shock or jar is not healthy. If you want to enter a race, you do some warming up first. That helps prepare your mind and body for the task ahead.

Cutting the umbilical cord is a great shock to the system of the child and if it is not allowed to reconnect now and then with the mother in the initial stages, the child will suffer in one way or another as it grows up or after it becomes an adult. That’s what I think.

I can’t prove this but I think one of the many reasons why children these days are “difficult” or “disrespectful” or “make use of parents” or are “self-centred and not bothered” too much about their parents – these are complaints I hear from parents – may be down to the fact that they might not have been fed mother’s milk.

I hope some academic or researcher undertakes a study on this.

I think it is very important that mothers offer their breasts to their babies. It is good for the baby and it is good for the mother too.

This week is a good time to drive home this message, for Aug 1 to 7 every year is World Breastfeeding Week. In some countries, such as New Zealand and the US, women came together last Saturday to feed their babies in public to promote breastfeeding.

Malaysians may not be so accepting of breastfeeding in public these days. But in the earlier days, it was normal to see mothers feed their babies on buses and in shops – of course they would do it as discreetly as possible.

Somewhere along the way, the breast became “dirty” or “offensive”; somewhere along the way a mother who breastfed her baby in public was quickly told not to do so as “people are watching”.

That’s another thing: some people just like to ogle. That should stop.

Mother’s should be allowed to feed their hungry babies from their breasts at any place without hindrance. They should be encouraged to bond with their child as often as possible.

Of course having special rooms where they can do this would be wonderful. How many such places do we have in Malaysia outside of the hospitals and some large shopping malls?

I would like to see building regulations in place that require government and commercial buildings to have space for mothers to breastfeed or care for toddlers.

How many Malaysian mothers breastfeed? The Second National Health and Morbidity Survey, carried out in 1996, showed that while the vast majority of mothers started breastfeeding after delivery, they stopped soon after.

It found that only 29 percent of infants below four months were exclusively breastfed – that is, except for mother’s milk, no other fluids were given.

The Third National Health and Morbidity Survey, carried out in 2006, showed that exclusive breastfeeding of infants below four months dropped to 19.3 percent. And it was only 14.5 percent for infants below six months.

I could not find any latest figures at the Malaysian Ministry of Health website but it recommends that mothers give only breast milk to infants for the first six months without introducing an additional fluid or food. The World Health Organisation (WHO) suggests that babies be breastfed at least till they are two years old.

The WHO estimates that about 800,000 children under five could be saved every year if all children between 0 and 23 months are optimally breastfed.

Breast milk has many benefits. Here are some:

• It contains antibodies that help protect infants from common childhood diseases such as diarrhoea and pneumonia.

• According to the WHO, adolescents and adults who were breastfed as babies are less likely to be overweight and less likely to have type-2 diabetes. They also perform better in intelligence tests.

• The US Department of Health says research suggests that breastfed babies have lower risk of asthma, childhood leukaemia, ear infections, lower respiratory infections, and sudden infant death syndrome.

• The risk of breast and ovarian cancer is reduced for mothers who breastfeed their babies. It helps women return to their pre-pregnancy weight faster and lowers rates of obesity, says WHO.

• One study, the Women’s Health Study, shows that the risk of heart diseases among breastfeeding mothers is reduced by at least 10 per cent.

• According to a study published in the journal Archives of Disease in Childhood two months ago, children who drink breast milk are more likely to reach a higher social class than their parents. This is because mother’s milk improves children’s neurological development and cognitive abilities.

I hope the next Malaysian health ministry survey will show an increase in the number of women who breastfeed.