Breastfeeding: Two-way Street

This was shared in our ygroups, published in the Philippine Star site.

=========================

Two-way street
AT 3 A.M.
By James B. Reuter Updated February 28, 2009 12:00 AM

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.

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 on 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 these 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 breast fed her baby.

In the middle of their investigations 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, 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 breast feeding, 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, the
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 finding, 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, here! 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 feed! 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 going 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 milk, and then - not only
did he snuggle — he put both hands into her hair, and hung on to her
for 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.

=========================

Can't help but make moms like me feel soooo proud over the investment i'm making :)