Was the Promotion of Breastfeeding as useless as the promotion of love?
The publication of this newsletter coincides with the launch of the British edition of "Birth and Breastfeeding" (first edition: "The Nature of Birth and Breastfeeding." Bergin and Garvey. USA 1992. Second Edition: Birth and Breastfeeding. Clair view. UK 2003).
PROMOTION OF LOVE IS OLD
are not necessarily great arguments to convince anyone that love has been promoted since time immemorial. Spiritual heroes, religious leaders, philosophers, poets, moralists and philanthropists of all persuasions have used a variety of terms that encourage the expression of various facets of love. Depending on the context has been referred to compassion, altruism, devotion, charity, generosity, kindness, benevolence, gratitude, forgiveness, etc. Since the word love has a positive connotation in most languages, it should be assumed that their promotion has been effective. But when we consider human behavior for over twenty-one centuries, we need not many reasons to doubt the actual benefits of the promotion of love.
HOW TO DEVELOP THE CAPACITY TO LOVE?
This question is so simple and so basic and so necessary is, paradoxically, new. While we ignore the promotion of love is doomed to have limited effects. Today we ask the question so that the various disciplines provide answers.
Therefore, it is necessary first, go to the study of the genetic basis of our conduct. As we now know, man is one of the three members of the family of chimpanzees, along with common chimpanzees and chimpanzees dwarfs. In other words, we are - talking in terms of genetics - chimpanzees. It is noteworthy that the common chimpanzee killings carried still planned extermination of rival gangs, war to conquer territories and abduction of young nubile females. Cro-Magnon men had similar traits. The sudden disappearance of the Neanderthals after the appearance of Cro-Magnon, suggests that genocide was effective. As
have a high destructive potential, humans also have the potential for love. How can this potential for love? A combination of inputs from various scientific disciplines suggests that the capacity to love develops largely during the earliest experiences, especially in the period surrounding the birth . A synthesis of current knowledge of the behavioral effects of hormones which fluctuate in the perinatal period, supports the concept of "critical period" introduced long ago by the specialists in behavior ("ethologists"). Ethologists were the first to realize that generally exists in mammals, immediately after birth in a very short period of time not to be repeated ever again, and it is very important for bonding between mother and child. A subset of studies included in the Data Bank Primal Health Research, also suggest that the development of the capacity to love is highly influenced by events in the perinatal period.
The publication of this newsletter coincides with the launch of the British edition of "Birth and Breastfeeding" (first edition: "The Nature of Birth and Breastfeeding." Bergin and Garvey. USA 1992. Second Edition: Birth and Breastfeeding. Clair view. UK 2003).
PROMOTION OF LOVE IS OLD
are not necessarily great arguments to convince anyone that love has been promoted since time immemorial. Spiritual heroes, religious leaders, philosophers, poets, moralists and philanthropists of all persuasions have used a variety of terms that encourage the expression of various facets of love. Depending on the context has been referred to compassion, altruism, devotion, charity, generosity, kindness, benevolence, gratitude, forgiveness, etc. Since the word love has a positive connotation in most languages, it should be assumed that their promotion has been effective. But when we consider human behavior for over twenty-one centuries, we need not many reasons to doubt the actual benefits of the promotion of love.
HOW TO DEVELOP THE CAPACITY TO LOVE?
This question is so simple and so basic and so necessary is, paradoxically, new. While we ignore the promotion of love is doomed to have limited effects. Today we ask the question so that the various disciplines provide answers.
Therefore, it is necessary first, go to the study of the genetic basis of our conduct. As we now know, man is one of the three members of the family of chimpanzees, along with common chimpanzees and chimpanzees dwarfs. In other words, we are - talking in terms of genetics - chimpanzees. It is noteworthy that the common chimpanzee killings carried still planned extermination of rival gangs, war to conquer territories and abduction of young nubile females. Cro-Magnon men had similar traits. The sudden disappearance of the Neanderthals after the appearance of Cro-Magnon, suggests that genocide was effective. As
have a high destructive potential, humans also have the potential for love. How can this potential for love? A combination of inputs from various scientific disciplines suggests that the capacity to love develops largely during the earliest experiences, especially in the period surrounding the birth . A synthesis of current knowledge of the behavioral effects of hormones which fluctuate in the perinatal period, supports the concept of "critical period" introduced long ago by the specialists in behavior ("ethologists"). Ethologists were the first to realize that generally exists in mammals, immediately after birth in a very short period of time not to be repeated ever again, and it is very important for bonding between mother and child. A subset of studies included in the Data Bank Primal Health Research, also suggest that the development of the capacity to love is highly influenced by events in the perinatal period.
is precisely because we are in the process of verifying that the manner in which we are born has long term consequences in terms of sociability, aggression and ability to love, we have begun to analyze the many beliefs and rituals that disturb the physiological development of the perinatal period. Most of them are interesting because they disrupt the critical stage of labor that goes from the birth of the baby to the expulsion of the placenta. We should understand that since the time when the basic survival strategy of many cultures was to exercise control over nature and other human groups, the creation of human beings more aggressive and destructive supposed advantage. In other words it was an advantage to control the ability to love, including the ability to love nature - respect for Mother Earth. Understandably, most powerful companies were those that had at its disposal the appropriate beliefs and rituals in the period surrounding birth. For millennia it has been the selection of human groups according to their potential for aggression. All of us are the result of this selective process. This explains our inability to recognize and effectively act against manifestations of impaired capacity to love.
Today, Homo sapiens must invent new strategies to survive. We are in the time Obviously we've reached the limits of the domain of nature, and that the necessary dialogue between humanity and Mother Earth calls for a substantial unification of humanity. It other words, human beings must learn to control energy through the promotion of love. Human beings must learn to make the necessary basic questions instead of directly promoting love. Scientific data can provide the necessary answers. For this reason a scientific view of love must be presented as a milestone in the history of mankind.
PROMOTING BREAST IS OLD
The promotion of breast milk is at least as old as the Scriptures. At first the question was not posed as "What is nursing a baby?". Rather, the question was "What will this child be breastfed by his mother?". In the Old Testament, Jeremiah regards maternal aversion to breastfeed. He was speaking to those who asked about convenience, when he said: "Even the sea monsters offer the breast to their descendants." The Talmud recommends that mothers breastfeed eight months to two years. The Koran recommends breastfeeding up to two years.
In another context, Julius Caesar complained that the sons of the patricians were not receiving breast milk. Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Moreover, breastfeeding became fashionable among the most elegant Parisian women of the upper classes of Europe in the eighteenth century, the movement back to nature. "The fashionable mamma" ("Mother of fashion"), an etching by James Gillray Inglés, dated 1796 (exhibited in the British Museum) illustrates the impact of the theories of Rousseau.
The promotion of breastfeeding takes different forms depending on historical context. In Renaissance art, the many paintings of the Virgin Mary breastfeeding the baby Jesus were indirectly, a non-premeditated but very effective in promoting breastfeeding. The power of religious imagery can help interpret an interesting phenomenon that occurred in Iceland, a country where mothers do not breastfeed their children for two or three centuries. Until the advent of the Reformation, the Virgin Mary had paramount importance in popular religious practices of Iceland, and during the rites of purification after childbirth, women prayed to the Virgin Mary in their local churches. In this case, the destruction of the image of Mary, may help explain why he left quickly and massively breastfeeding.
A mid-twentieth century, during the baby boom that followed World War II, developed the formulas and breast-feeding declined. A group of nursing mothers met in a suburb of Chicago and in 1956 founded the La Leche League. Its main objective was to provide information and support to breastfeeding mothers at a time when many doctors promoted bottle-feeding. It is indeed difficult to separate support for nursing mothers and promoting breastfeeding. A nursing mother always promotes breastfeeding. Today
promotion of breastfeeding is one of the priorities of Germany's largest public health promotion. In many countries, is largely in the hands of government departments. In Brazil, the PNIAM (National Aleitamento year or Incentive Mother) was established in 1981 and was included in the Brazilian constitution in 1988. This program is notable for its intensity, extension and innovation. Each state organizes training for all categories of health professionals and also for traditional healers and others in the unofficial sector of the field of health. For campaigns in the media used familiar characters faces, and the legislation included warnings about breast milk substitutes and maternal incrementaros permits. Brazil also had a very active participation in the Initiative Baby Friendly Hospital in 1998 and was accredited as such to 103 hospitals.
In China in 1995, the law mandates contained active within the health system to provide educational materials on infant feeding. This included a regulation on marketing of breast milk substitutes. In USA, the Surgeon General, officially recommended that babies must be fed only breast milk - no formula - for the first six months of life. It's great to breastfeed for six months and much better to breastfeed for twelve months. The slogan promulgated by the Surgeon General is "the breast - the best for the baby - the best for the mother" (Breast - Best for Baby - Best for Mom).
Health's performance Public may seem as effective when you consider that in our society today everyone is convinced that "Breast is best" (Breast is Best). This is the conclusion of my unofficial observation among taxi drivers in different countries. But one may wonder if these modern methods are effective and direct. There is a huge gap between formal knowledge, popular knowledge and intentions on the one hand and statistical data on the other side. In many countries the duration of breastfeeding falls much earlier than recommended by national plans. Today the goal is not to promote breastfeeding: is to understand why breastfeeding in our society is so difficult and can not continue until the recommended setting.
HOW CAN DEVELOP THE CAPACITY OF NURSING?
This question so simple, basic and necessary is, paradoxically new. While we try to ignore it, the promotion of breastfeeding will remain ineffective. Today we are able to explain that breastfeeding begins before the baby is born.
Until recently, the fact that the mother's body prepares milk secretion before birth the baby was in the domain of intuitive knowledge. Today physiologists are able to explain how the hormones secreted by the mother and baby during in labor and birth play a role in the initiation of breastfeeding.
We find several examples to explain the connections between the physiology of childbirth and lactation:
In 1979 it became known that beta-endorphin levels increase during childbirth. Also, we knew since 1977 that beta-endorphins stimulate the secretion of prolactin. This makes it possible to interpret a string of events: physiological pain of childbirth - a system of protection against the pain - and the key hormone secretion during lactation.
A Swedish study published in 1996, showed that two days after birth when the baby is feeding, the woman who has had a vaginal delivery oxytocin secreted in pulses (when the discharge is effective), compared with women who have had an emergency cesarean delivery. In addition there is a correlation between the way that oxytocin is secreted two days after birth and duration of exclusive breastfeeding.
The same Swedish team found that women with cesarean delivery had no significant increases in prolactin levels to 20 to 30 minutes after the start of the shot.
An Italian team proved that the amount of beta-endorphins in colostral milk of mothers with vaginal delivery is significantly higher than levels in colostrum of mothers who have given birth by Caesarean section. Probably one of the effects of opiates in milk create a kind of addiction to milk. It is anticipated that the greater the addiction of the newborn to the breast, longer and is easier breastfeeding.
generally easy to understand at first, when the newborn is able to find the breast, the behavior of the mother and baby are under the influence of several hormones secreted during childbirth. These various hormones secreted by the mother during the birth process are still present in the first hour after birth, all of which play a specific role in the interaction between mother and baby well as in the initiation of breastfeeding.
also other factors involved in developing the ability to breastfeed. Anyway, it is necessary to focus attention on the physiological process that is routinely disturbed by the cultural milieu.
Such considerations are particularly relevant at the time of elective caesarean sections on demand and the time at our disposal many powerful ways to disrupt the physiological process of the period surrounding birth. As the fundamental questions are not taken into account, the public health campaigns are not positive in regard to the cost-benefit. None of these health campaigns public takes into account the total, almost cultural misunderstanding of the physiology of birth that leads to high rates of obstetric interventions and the widespread use of pharmacological substitutes of natural hormones. The priority now should be to rediscover the basic needs of women during childbirth.
Brazil is an ideal place to measure the gap between theory and practice, since it is characterized for having fired the cesarean rate and the institutional promotion of breastfeeding. Almeida Couto an interesting study conducted on breastfeeding women health professionals whose mission was to recommend exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months. When these experts were nursing their own children the median duration of exclusive breastfeeding was only 98 days! All these women were guaranteed a maternity leave of 120 days. It mentions a detail ² ² the report of this study: among health professionals at the university level, 85.7% had a cesarean delivery, compared with 66.7% among health professionals of technical level. A longitudinal study of weaning practices in northeast Brazil (where 99% of women breastfeeding when they leave the hospital) revealed that the average age to start "another" milk was 24 days and the average length breastfeeding among mothers began to offer "other" milk within the first month (the majority) was 65 days. It is interesting that this article does not mention the rate of caesarean sections.
China is also characterized by the high rate of Caesarean sections and intensive national program to promote breastfeeding. It is difficult to obtain accurate statistical data in China. However, during the trip I made in 2002, I heard word that many women have trouble breastfeeding. This confirms the public statement "Save the Children" in the Kunming province, that there is a growing demand for substances to stimulate milk secretion ( www.ibfan.org )
In USA, the incidence of exclusive breastfeeding for the first three months is generally below 30%. In the UK, where the population is comparatively better knowledge and commitment in terms of health, the incidence of breastfeeding at six months is 20%. With regard to breastfeeding, there is great contrast between the Scandinavian countries and Japan on one side and the rest of the world on the other. In Norway and Sweden, for example, the rate of breastfeeding at six months is about 50%. In this group of countries, obstetric intervention yet remains under control. The situation in Holland is special. It seems that Dutch women generally do not encounter difficulties when they breastfeed, but Holland is a country with a long tradition of bottle feeding, which explains the comparatively low incidence of breastfeeding in a country where many women give birth at home. Anyway, the incidence of breastfeeding at six months is about 25% compared to 15% at three months in France.
The best synthesis of the current international situation is provided by the Global Data Bank WHO on breastfeeding issues (WHO Global Data Bank on breatfeeding). Contains data from 94 countries and 65% of the world's children. According to Latest data (April 2003), 35% of these children were fed exclusively on breast milk between 0-4 months of age.
Today the priority is not to constantly repeat that "Breast is Best" (Breast is Best). Is to consider as it develops the ability to breastfeed. Is to rediscover the basic needs of women in childbirth. Public health organizations should be aware that "breast begins before the birth of the baby." Michel Odent
Today, Homo sapiens must invent new strategies to survive. We are in the time Obviously we've reached the limits of the domain of nature, and that the necessary dialogue between humanity and Mother Earth calls for a substantial unification of humanity. It other words, human beings must learn to control energy through the promotion of love. Human beings must learn to make the necessary basic questions instead of directly promoting love. Scientific data can provide the necessary answers. For this reason a scientific view of love must be presented as a milestone in the history of mankind.
PROMOTING BREAST IS OLD
The promotion of breast milk is at least as old as the Scriptures. At first the question was not posed as "What is nursing a baby?". Rather, the question was "What will this child be breastfed by his mother?". In the Old Testament, Jeremiah regards maternal aversion to breastfeed. He was speaking to those who asked about convenience, when he said: "Even the sea monsters offer the breast to their descendants." The Talmud recommends that mothers breastfeed eight months to two years. The Koran recommends breastfeeding up to two years.
In another context, Julius Caesar complained that the sons of the patricians were not receiving breast milk. Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Moreover, breastfeeding became fashionable among the most elegant Parisian women of the upper classes of Europe in the eighteenth century, the movement back to nature. "The fashionable mamma" ("Mother of fashion"), an etching by James Gillray Inglés, dated 1796 (exhibited in the British Museum) illustrates the impact of the theories of Rousseau.
The promotion of breastfeeding takes different forms depending on historical context. In Renaissance art, the many paintings of the Virgin Mary breastfeeding the baby Jesus were indirectly, a non-premeditated but very effective in promoting breastfeeding. The power of religious imagery can help interpret an interesting phenomenon that occurred in Iceland, a country where mothers do not breastfeed their children for two or three centuries. Until the advent of the Reformation, the Virgin Mary had paramount importance in popular religious practices of Iceland, and during the rites of purification after childbirth, women prayed to the Virgin Mary in their local churches. In this case, the destruction of the image of Mary, may help explain why he left quickly and massively breastfeeding.
A mid-twentieth century, during the baby boom that followed World War II, developed the formulas and breast-feeding declined. A group of nursing mothers met in a suburb of Chicago and in 1956 founded the La Leche League. Its main objective was to provide information and support to breastfeeding mothers at a time when many doctors promoted bottle-feeding. It is indeed difficult to separate support for nursing mothers and promoting breastfeeding. A nursing mother always promotes breastfeeding. Today
promotion of breastfeeding is one of the priorities of Germany's largest public health promotion. In many countries, is largely in the hands of government departments. In Brazil, the PNIAM (National Aleitamento year or Incentive Mother) was established in 1981 and was included in the Brazilian constitution in 1988. This program is notable for its intensity, extension and innovation. Each state organizes training for all categories of health professionals and also for traditional healers and others in the unofficial sector of the field of health. For campaigns in the media used familiar characters faces, and the legislation included warnings about breast milk substitutes and maternal incrementaros permits. Brazil also had a very active participation in the Initiative Baby Friendly Hospital in 1998 and was accredited as such to 103 hospitals.
In China in 1995, the law mandates contained active within the health system to provide educational materials on infant feeding. This included a regulation on marketing of breast milk substitutes. In USA, the Surgeon General, officially recommended that babies must be fed only breast milk - no formula - for the first six months of life. It's great to breastfeed for six months and much better to breastfeed for twelve months. The slogan promulgated by the Surgeon General is "the breast - the best for the baby - the best for the mother" (Breast - Best for Baby - Best for Mom).
Health's performance Public may seem as effective when you consider that in our society today everyone is convinced that "Breast is best" (Breast is Best). This is the conclusion of my unofficial observation among taxi drivers in different countries. But one may wonder if these modern methods are effective and direct. There is a huge gap between formal knowledge, popular knowledge and intentions on the one hand and statistical data on the other side. In many countries the duration of breastfeeding falls much earlier than recommended by national plans. Today the goal is not to promote breastfeeding: is to understand why breastfeeding in our society is so difficult and can not continue until the recommended setting.
HOW CAN DEVELOP THE CAPACITY OF NURSING?
This question so simple, basic and necessary is, paradoxically new. While we try to ignore it, the promotion of breastfeeding will remain ineffective. Today we are able to explain that breastfeeding begins before the baby is born.
Until recently, the fact that the mother's body prepares milk secretion before birth the baby was in the domain of intuitive knowledge. Today physiologists are able to explain how the hormones secreted by the mother and baby during in labor and birth play a role in the initiation of breastfeeding.
We find several examples to explain the connections between the physiology of childbirth and lactation:
In 1979 it became known that beta-endorphin levels increase during childbirth. Also, we knew since 1977 that beta-endorphins stimulate the secretion of prolactin. This makes it possible to interpret a string of events: physiological pain of childbirth - a system of protection against the pain - and the key hormone secretion during lactation.
A Swedish study published in 1996, showed that two days after birth when the baby is feeding, the woman who has had a vaginal delivery oxytocin secreted in pulses (when the discharge is effective), compared with women who have had an emergency cesarean delivery. In addition there is a correlation between the way that oxytocin is secreted two days after birth and duration of exclusive breastfeeding.
The same Swedish team found that women with cesarean delivery had no significant increases in prolactin levels to 20 to 30 minutes after the start of the shot.
An Italian team proved that the amount of beta-endorphins in colostral milk of mothers with vaginal delivery is significantly higher than levels in colostrum of mothers who have given birth by Caesarean section. Probably one of the effects of opiates in milk create a kind of addiction to milk. It is anticipated that the greater the addiction of the newborn to the breast, longer and is easier breastfeeding.
generally easy to understand at first, when the newborn is able to find the breast, the behavior of the mother and baby are under the influence of several hormones secreted during childbirth. These various hormones secreted by the mother during the birth process are still present in the first hour after birth, all of which play a specific role in the interaction between mother and baby well as in the initiation of breastfeeding.
also other factors involved in developing the ability to breastfeed. Anyway, it is necessary to focus attention on the physiological process that is routinely disturbed by the cultural milieu.
Such considerations are particularly relevant at the time of elective caesarean sections on demand and the time at our disposal many powerful ways to disrupt the physiological process of the period surrounding birth. As the fundamental questions are not taken into account, the public health campaigns are not positive in regard to the cost-benefit. None of these health campaigns public takes into account the total, almost cultural misunderstanding of the physiology of birth that leads to high rates of obstetric interventions and the widespread use of pharmacological substitutes of natural hormones. The priority now should be to rediscover the basic needs of women during childbirth.
Brazil is an ideal place to measure the gap between theory and practice, since it is characterized for having fired the cesarean rate and the institutional promotion of breastfeeding. Almeida Couto an interesting study conducted on breastfeeding women health professionals whose mission was to recommend exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months. When these experts were nursing their own children the median duration of exclusive breastfeeding was only 98 days! All these women were guaranteed a maternity leave of 120 days. It mentions a detail ² ² the report of this study: among health professionals at the university level, 85.7% had a cesarean delivery, compared with 66.7% among health professionals of technical level. A longitudinal study of weaning practices in northeast Brazil (where 99% of women breastfeeding when they leave the hospital) revealed that the average age to start "another" milk was 24 days and the average length breastfeeding among mothers began to offer "other" milk within the first month (the majority) was 65 days. It is interesting that this article does not mention the rate of caesarean sections.
China is also characterized by the high rate of Caesarean sections and intensive national program to promote breastfeeding. It is difficult to obtain accurate statistical data in China. However, during the trip I made in 2002, I heard word that many women have trouble breastfeeding. This confirms the public statement "Save the Children" in the Kunming province, that there is a growing demand for substances to stimulate milk secretion ( www.ibfan.org )
In USA, the incidence of exclusive breastfeeding for the first three months is generally below 30%. In the UK, where the population is comparatively better knowledge and commitment in terms of health, the incidence of breastfeeding at six months is 20%. With regard to breastfeeding, there is great contrast between the Scandinavian countries and Japan on one side and the rest of the world on the other. In Norway and Sweden, for example, the rate of breastfeeding at six months is about 50%. In this group of countries, obstetric intervention yet remains under control. The situation in Holland is special. It seems that Dutch women generally do not encounter difficulties when they breastfeed, but Holland is a country with a long tradition of bottle feeding, which explains the comparatively low incidence of breastfeeding in a country where many women give birth at home. Anyway, the incidence of breastfeeding at six months is about 25% compared to 15% at three months in France.
The best synthesis of the current international situation is provided by the Global Data Bank WHO on breastfeeding issues (WHO Global Data Bank on breatfeeding). Contains data from 94 countries and 65% of the world's children. According to Latest data (April 2003), 35% of these children were fed exclusively on breast milk between 0-4 months of age.
Today the priority is not to constantly repeat that "Breast is Best" (Breast is Best). Is to consider as it develops the ability to breastfeed. Is to rediscover the basic needs of women in childbirth. Public health organizations should be aware that "breast begins before the birth of the baby." Michel Odent
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