http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=bottlefeeding-mimics-mourni
ng

 

  August 27, 2009

 

Breasts in Mourning: How Bottle-Feeding Mimics Child Loss in Mothers' Brains

After a successful birth, opting not to breast-feed may trigger evolved
mourning behaviors

By Jesse Bering 

 

 Discussions of breastfeeding versus bottle-feeding usually focus on the
baby: What's best in terms of nutrition? Or an infant's future mental
health?

 

But we're going to take a different route. Let's talk about the mother, and
more specifically, the changes in her body as it readies itself to nourish a
hungry newborn. With her breasts enlarged and hormones flowing, what happens
if no newborn appears to suckle? How will her body-and brain-react?

 

First, a little background. The obvious physical changes in the pregnant
human body (including swelling breasts) occur in response to escalating
levels of the hormones prolactin, lactogen, estrogen, progesterone,
adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) and growth hormone. Placental birth
serves as a sort of trigger event signaling to the mother's body that it's
time to begin releasing milk. The baby's physical suckling behavior-that is
to say, lips tugging on teats-stimulates the first ejections, but eventually
milk flow can start up by simply thinking about the baby, smelling it, or
hearing it cry. "Involution," the physiological process by which women's
breasts revert back to those dormant objects that give so much pleasure to
adult human males, coincides with slowly weaning the growing infant away
from breast milk and onto regular foods. << end of exerpt.  Read full
article online.

Feel free to repost

 

Gloria Lemay, Vancouver BC Canada

www.glorialemay.com/blog

 

 


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