Mama’s Milk Starts Us Right

How perfect is nature when both a youngster’s normal growth and development and a mother’s reproductive health depend on nursing baby on mother’s milk. Mama’s milk not only creates a healthy supply and demand relationship to food for our young, it also creates a naturally close relationship between mom and the little one.

"Babies raised exclusively on mama’s milk grow normally, differently, from babies also fed artificial milks," says Amanda Stuart, a certified lactation counselor serving Grand Rapids area families. She supports her statement by pointing to the new child growth standards used by the World Health Organization (WHO) and based on the "Multicentre Growth Reference Study" (see www.who.int/childgrowth/standards/en).

Stuart observes that "babies raised with mother’s milk tend to get chubby quickly during their first few months and then begin to slim down compared with their formula-fed counterparts." This can make breastfed babies falsely look as if they aren’t gaining weight fast enough when their weight is plotted on the mostly formula-based charts still widely used in the United States. This can and has led to inappropriate recommendations by health care providers to supplement breastfed babies with formula or to wean them completely from the breast. But the WHO standards seeks to eliminate the confusion by showing breastfed growth as the normal pattern of growth.

A mother’s milk will naturally change from day to day and even from feeding to feeding in order to adjust to baby’s growing needs. Milk even changes between the beginning and end of a feeding. It transforms from a nutritious thirst quencher into a creamy, satisfying meal. Mama’s milk also frequently changes in quantity depending on how fast her baby is growing.

Baby’s natural first food begins with colostrum, a sort of breastmilk with training wheels. This special version of mother’s milk allows an infant to learn his or her way in this new world through eating slowly and in tiny quantities. In adjusting to life outside of mother’s womb, baby is learning to coordinate breathing air with sucking and swallowing.

Fortunately, colostrum coats the inside of the child’s digestive system with concentrated nutrients and immune factors. It’s laying the groundwork for normal future functioning. Soon the training wheels are off and mom starts making mature milk. Now baby quickly puts the earlier breathe-suck-swallow practice to work.

"When babies don’t get colostrum and mature milk through their digestive systems, the result is a bit like an engine running without oil," says Stuart. "Things don’t move right and it turns into a stinky mess." She explains that mama’s-milk diapers smell a bit like chamomile. Infant formula or breastmilk-substitute diapers smell a lot...not like chamomile.

According to research published in Pediatrics, the official journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics, babies fed artificial milks also live at heightened risk of everything from ear infections and obesity to diabetes and sudden infant death syndrome or SIDS. Such heightened disease risks can last a lifetime.

However, when a nursing mom and/or her baby are exposed to harmful germs, her milk’s immune content readily changes to protect and defend baby from the exposure. In fact, mom’s milk is baby’s best protection against whatever has mom under the weather.

Mother’s milk also varies in flavor depending on her diet. Studies reported in Pediatrics have even shown that babies more readily accept various solid foods, like garlic, carrots and spices, when they’ve already tasted these flavors in mama’s milk.

So hello breastfeeding, goodbye picky eaters!

Amanda Stuart, who regularly visits families at home to provide informed breastfeeding support, explains how baby’s suckle makes mom release the hormones prolactin and oxytocin, both of which are essential in producing and letting down milk. Interestingly, this is true throughout nature as oxytocin and prolactin have been found to relate to parental care, bonding and defense of young. Lactating mothers must be under the influence of these bonding and protective hormones.

The same hormonal influences also are key in a woman’s normal reproductive health. Breastfeeding plays as much of a role in a mother’s reproductive cycle as conception, pregnancy and birth. The more a woman breastfeeds, the slower she returns to fertility and receptivity to possible pregnancy. Breastfeeding even has its own brand of family planning, historically known as "nature," now named Lactational Amenorrhea Method or LAM. This highly effective birth control method is promoted by both Planned Parenthood and the World Health Organization. More information is available at waba.org.my/specialpages/lam/lam.htm.

On the other hand, early weaning or a lack of breastfeeding allows a woman’s premature return to fertility. Without other intervention, close pregnancies can occur that put mom’s health at risk.

It’s one more way that mama’s milk protects and defends mother’s health. It even helps guard against ovarian and breast cancer. A study published in The Lancet in 2002 re-examining 47 studies on breast cancer in 30 countries showed that the longer a woman breastfeeds, the lower her risk for breast cancer. The countries with the highest rates of breast cancer have the lowest rates of breastfeeding, the United States among them.

For all these reasons and more, mama’s milk is baby’s best first introduction to a loving world of natural food, natural flavors and natural health. By following a healthy pregnancy with natural progression into regular breastfeeding, a mother provides hope for her child’s normal health and growth from infancy through adulthood.

Amanda Stuart is a certified lactation counselor who regularly provides breastfeeding support home visits to mothers in the Greater Grand Rapids area. She has more than 10 years of experience supporting families with young children. She may be reached at 616-475-3851.

Source: Originally published in Natural Awakenings West Michigan November 2006 Natural Foods issue.