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From:
Pam Pilch <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Lactation Information and Discussion <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Fri, 4 May 2007 20:58:32 EDT
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I recently read in a faith-based publication the following, on the  morality 
of breastfeeding:
 
 
"[Our organization]  promotes breastfeeding because it is the optimal way to 
feed and care for a  baby.  [Our organization]  teaches the art of 
breastfeeding so  couples are encouraged to choose breastfeeding out of selfless love for 
their  babies.  Breastfeeding benefits baby, mother and father, and in fact, 
all  of society, but should be done primarily for the baby's benefit rather 
than for  other motivations."
 
Does anyone have any idea what "other motivations" they might  be talking 
about?  
 
This idea has been coming across my desk frequently lately. I also  
corresponded recently with a prominent theologian who indicated to  me that any mother 
who breastfeeds "solely or even primarily" to encourage  natural child spacing 
was "using her baby as a means to an end" (in other words  was breastfeeding 
for an immoral purpose.) 
 
I am pretty worried about how close this comes to the old accusations used  
to discourage mothers from nursing a child, say, past the age of 2 - "that  
mother is only nursing for her own selfish benefit..."
 
I am also worried that a young woman who doesn't know anything  about 
breastfeeding or who has a particularly sensitive conscience is going to  start 
worrying that if she reads about the child spacing  effect (or the reduction in her 
own cancer risk, etc.)  and thinks,  wow!  that would be great - to 
breastfeed and have babies spaced naturally  2 years apart - and then start to worry 
that she was appreciating the child  spacing benefit a little TOO MUCH and that 
perhaps she should stop breastfeeding  so much.
 
I don't understand where all the caution is coming from about breastfeeding  
SOLELY for the benefit of the baby.  
 
Breastfeeding always benefits the baby.  But it seems to me that some  people 
of faith could believe that God (or nature) has so intertwined the  physical, 
emotional, psychological and spiritual benefits of breastfeeding that  when 
the mother benefits so does the baby - the benefits are not in  conflict.
 
It would be a very unusual situation - I think - in which a mother would  
breastfeed for a selfish purpose to the detriment of the child (or in this case,  
in which a mother would breastfeed to the benefit of the child, but  has the 
wrong internal motivation for doing so).
 
Can anyone think what this is about?  Are any other groups -  faith-based or 
other - casting doubt on or particularly concerned about the  morality of 
breastfeeding based on the mother's private motivations?  This  moral objection to 
breastfeeding seems to have come out of left field to  me.  And from a 
faith-based organization that has historically been  fairly closely aligned with La 
Leche League in its approach to  breastfeeding.
 
I work closely with many women of traditional faith and values and  this kind 
of doubt about the morality of breastfeeding could combine  with modesty 
concerns and a tendency to elevate the primacy of the  marriage relationship over 
the baby's needs (in an Ezzo-type manner) to have a  real chilling effect on 
breastfeeding in some circles. 
 
Thanks.
 
Pamela H. Pilch, JD
Lamaze Certified Childbirth Educator
CatholicMom.com Breastfeeding Columnist
_http://www.catholicmom.com/pilch.htm_ (http://www.catholicmom.com/pilch.htm) 




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