Breastfeeding Is Also Nourishing The Soul, Protecting The Heart …
Breastfeeding is more than feeding your baby, it is feeding his heart, it is enveloping his soul, calming his fears, his loneliness … It is, above all, establishing a bond that comes from looks, from emotions.
It is curious that sometimes basic and elementary actions such as giving the breast or bottle to the baby actually perform many more functions than those we seek at the beginning. The emotional aspects that lie behind this daily action, to which mothers dedicate themselves on average between 6 months and 2 years of their babies’ life, are decisive in order to establish the bond that will lay the foundations of mother-child attachment. .
We may not always be aware of it, but the time spent receiving breast milk allows the baby to mature in terms of attention and perception, but it also involves sight and the communication process. Because while they are giving the breast, all mothers do the same thing: they talk to their baby, they whisper to him, they sing, they tell him how much they love him.
However, we cannot leave out the role of fathers, because they too give the bottle, they too establish an emotional connection with their children, cradle them, caress them and talk to them. They too nourish the baby’s heart and protect his soul.
Breastfeeding, a personal choice, a way to nourish life
Breastfeeding, therefore breastfeeding, is a personal choice of every mother. Only she can decide to do so and only she can decide until and, consequently, when to start weaning.
We know that bodies such as the WHO (World Health Organization) recommend that breastfeeding last at least for the first six months of the baby’s life, being able to extend this practice up to two years. In this way, the child’s immune system is strengthened and also offers some defensive barriers against phlegm, meningitis, otitis, bronchiolitis, pneumonia, etc.
Breastfeeding is also known to offer many benefits to mothers, such as a lower risk of developing typically female cancers (between 11% and 20%) or even suffering from osteoporosis at an early age.
The benefits are many at a very low cost. It is a phase, yes, that requires time and dedication and that tires the mother very much who has to reconcile work responsibilities with family ones, there is no doubt. However, those who have made it, those who have been able to breastfeed their children for as long as they consider necessary, keep a fantastic memory. A gift full of emotions that lasts forever in one’s memory.
Even I who give the bottle are in tune with my baby, I caress his heart
No, the mother who preferred the bottle to the breast is not a bad mother. Similarly, even the mother should not feel guilty that she was forced to use formula milk because she was not able to breastfeed her baby as she would have liked. Because his children will feel equally loved, safe, satisfied and happy.
We know that society throws at us many times what we must do and what we must not do at all times. It is for this reason that many mothers feel criticized when they choose to feed their babies with formula milk; and they will often be told that “if you had breastfed him, you would have established a deeper bond”.
Breastfeeding is magical, there is no doubt, but the foundations of true attachment are laid by being close to your baby, offering daily warmth, that delicate voice that comforts and stimulates, that extinguishes fears, that sings, that makes you laugh and that whispers sweet words.
This contact between mother and child is built even if you feed the baby with a bottle, where the eyes meet, the hands caress, where there are smiles and a sincere love that creates an atmosphere of peace and balance.
I will breastfeed you as long as I want, as long as you tell me …
“You are spoiling him”, “He is attached to your skirt”, “You are not educating him properly”, “He will not eat everything”, “He will take away your strength”, “He will be a despotic and capricious child” …
These are the most common phrases that many mothers hear when they say “no” to weaning although the friend, mother or neighbor advises to do so because in this way she is badly bringing up the baby. Many of these people do not know that sometimes what they call “bad education” is “good education”.
Wishing to extend breastfeeding beyond the first year of life is a personal choice. If a woman wishes to breastfeed two babies at a time, she will have thought about her decision and she is the one who has to complete the task. If the child walks and runs, but still asks for the breast, it is up to the mother and her child to choose whether to maintain this practice, this physiological union that sooner or later will end on its own, naturally.
To conclude, breastfeeding is a wonderful experience that allows you to refine the magical bond with your children. It’s a personal choice, as is deciding when to stop. We let each mother be free to choose how to raise her child.
Images courtesy of the tree of life app
