I am proud that I breastfed Diam for two and a half years, and currently breaftfeeding Gem - he's now 1 year 4 months old.
The Two-way Street
Fr. James B. Reuter, S.J.
The Armed Forces of the United States of America, after intensive investigation for two full years, came to the conclusion that babies, who were nursed at their mother’s breast, never got battle fatigue.
Battle fatigue, during World War I, was known as “shell shock.” It is insanity, brought about by the pressure of war. It was especially terrible because those soldiers who “went off” years later, in civilian life, from shell shock, saw the enemy everywhere. They fought for survival.
In my own home town we had a war hero with a chest full of medals, who was shell shocked. He suffered shell shock in a gas raid.
The signal for the gas raid was four bells. One sunny morning, walking down the main street of our little town, a trolley car passed him. It had a bell. It sounded---four bells. The war hero went wild and killed a storekeeper.
He was not tried for any crime. He was put in an asylum in a padded cell. Our principal newspaper carried an article on the front page, explaining that---when a man is shell shocked and goes off---he goes back into a battle situation where he is surrounded by enemies. He sees no friends anywhere. He fights for survival. And that is how our war hero killed the storekeeper.
The US Army was so disturbed by the high incidence of battle fatigue in World War II that they said to the medical corps: “Find out the cause of this, so that we can defend ourselves against it.”
The medical corps went at it. Their first report was: “It is nothing that we do to these boys! We take two boys from the same town. We feed them the same food. We train them in exactly the same way. We put them in the same battle, under the same pressure and one breaks and the other doesn’t… It is nothing that we do to this boys! It is something that happened to them before we got them!”
Then they investigated the homes from which they came. And they discovered that the boys who nursed at their mother’s breast never got battle fatigue! They were immune. All the boys who came down with battle fatigue were artificially fed!
When they had this finding they did not know what to do with it. They did not release it for two years. During that time they investigated what happened when a mother breastfed her baby.
In the middle of their investigation they felt they had it! It was basic metabolism! The transubstantiation of the food you eat, into your body and blood. They always thought that basic metabolism was determined while the baby was in the womb. But they discovered that it was determined only in the days, and weeks, and months, after delivery!
So they felt that their investigation was over. It was: mother’s milk! They checked this. They took the real mother’s milk with a breast pump, and fed it to her baby in a bottle… It did not work!... The basic metabolism of the baby came out very rocky… Better than if it was purely artificial feeding, but far from normal!
The doctors thought: “What is this? We know it is breastfeeding, but it is not the mother’s milk!”
They got their lead from this: Some babies have insomnia. They lie awake at night, as tense as a drum. You can put these babies to sleep with injections, but the doctors do not want to do this, because the baby is a delicate little instrument. If you put too many chemicals into him, he will die!
In practice, every nurse, in every nursery, knows what to do. She takes the baby from the bassinet, brings him to his mother, and puts him on his mother’s breast. When he is pressed against her, when she is holding him, and talking to him, he relaxes, and he sleeps.
The doctors said: “What is it---about the mother---that does this to the baby?” They investigated this for months. Now they have about five things that they can prove scientifically.
It is the skin of the mommy! The skin of the mother is the sweetest skin in all this world to her baby. It is his safety blanket. That is why a baby, nursing at his mother’s breast, puts his hand on her other breast. The touch of his mommy makes him feel safe and secure.
It is the smell of the mommy! To a baby, the scent of his mother is the sweetest scent in all the world.
It is her heart beat! The beating of her heart is the music of his life. He has been living to the music of his mother for nine months, in her womb. When he is separated from that heart beat, he is frightened!
It is the sound of her voice! Every woman has a frequency. The baby is tuned to that frequency. There is no chemical known to men that can relax a baby so completely as the sound of his mother’s voice.
When the baby breast-feeds, the milk is the best! It is designed for the baby by God! He has the touch of his mother, the scent of her, that sound of her voice, the beating of her heart---everything is right! His basic metabolism comes out “normal,” which is the doctor’s word for “perfect.”
When a baby feeds in a bassinet, with a bottle, the food is only food and it is not as good as it ought to be. He is a delicate little instrument, and every door that slams frightens him. He does not have his mother---the touch of her, the scent of her, the sound of her voice, the beating of her heart. He feeds in panic, in terror. His basic metabolism comes out very rocky. Twenty years later, when these two boys go into battle, the one who fed at his mother’s breast comes out normal. The baby who fed in the bassinet comes out shattered.
When the doctors had this findings, they said: “This we know about war… How much pressure is there, in times of peace? How many boys blow up, who might not have blown up, if they were given a fair start by their mothers?”
What the United States Armed Forces discovered was that a baby needs his mother!
But the mother also needs the baby… When her child is born, for the first time in her life, a mother is loved without calculation! Her husband who marries her chooses her out of all the women in the world and this is beautiful, but he measures her beauty! He knows if she is as pretty as Miss Universe, or prettier, or not as pretty. He calculates!
Her baby does not calculate! A mother took the wrong baby home from the hospital. In the hospital, she only saw the baby when he was brought for breast-feeding. And she was so happy with him there! He was always hungry. He would consume all her milk. He would snuggle. And he was a laughing baby. She never heard him cry.
But when she got him home, he would not breast-fed! She was hurting! She felt that she had to nurse, but the baby would not nurse! And he was weeping and wailing! And when she tried to hold him close, he would pull away from her! Finally, in the evening, he developed fever. She thought: “Oh, my God! He is gong to die!” She brought him to the doctor, and the doctor said: “You have the wrong baby!”
When they found her real baby, he was doing the same thing! He would not breast-feed! He was weeping and wailing! He would not snuggle!... When she got him home, he consumed all her mild, and then---not only did he snuggle---he put both hands into her hair, and hung on to her dear life, afraid that he would lose her again!
Mother, your baby is a one-woman boy. He is not interested in any other mother. Only you… He loves you, without calculation. Because you are his, and he is yours… and this is love.
Your baby needs you… And you need your baby… It is a two-way street.
"But You brought me out when I was born.
You made me trust when I drank my mother's milk."
Psalm 22:9 New Life Bible
No comments:
Post a Comment