“IDEAL medicine, the unbeatable nutrition, the sound economics of a free good, the deep ecology of no waste, and last, but not the least, the sheer joy of bonding of mother and child — these five petals of the power of breastfeeding make it one of the basic pillars of ‘The Good Society,’ one that nurtures its future caringly, competently, and completely,” wrote the late economist Galbraith. What a poignant way to describe the benefits of breastfeeding!
It is an accepted scientific fact that we humans (homo sapiens) are animals, just like the lady ape “Lucy,” possibly our earliest direct human ancestor 3.2 million years ago, whose fossils were discovered by paleontologist Donald C. Johnson in Hadar, Ethiopia in 1974.
Under the class Mammalia and the order Primates, humans “have the basic pattern of breastfeeding and weaning activity that has been molded by more than 65 million years of natural selection to ensure the best possible survival rate of primate offspring,” explains K. A. Dettwyler, Ph.D, of the Natural Child Project.
While humans are domesticated tool-using animals, who are intelligent and have the power of reasoning and deduction which they could articulate well, scientists nonetheless, often compare human behaviors with the behaviors of other primates, like chimpanzees and gorillas, and even with those of other animals, like dogs, sheep, deer, horses, etc. when they study man’s “natural” behavior and instincts.
Evolution and us
One example is breastfeeding. A study (Breastfeeding: Biocultural Perspectives), using regression analysis, concluded that the “young primates should have an average weaning age of between 2.8 and 3.7 years.”
Elephants and chimpanzees wean their young at age 4 to 5, while gorillas, at about 3.
Mankind, especially thousands of years ago, and even today, among the poor, nursing practices have been and are determined by the exigencies of life.
The now extinct Karankawa Indians in the narrow strip of South Texas, from Galveston to Corpus Christi, nursed their children until age 12 because of the scarcity of food, where family members were usually without food for several days.
Some studies suggest that “primates are like other mammals in weaning each offspring when they reach one-third their adult weight,” which equation translates to an average weaning age between 2.8 years and 3.7 years.
Current data
The World Breastfeeding Trends Initiative (WBTi) released its research report on ‘The State of Breastfeeding in 33 countries-2010,’ which among other issues, revealed that in the Philippines only 75.5 percent of mothers breastfed their babies. Fifty-four percent of these mothers initiated breast feeding within one hour after giving birth, which is an excellent practice that decreases neonatal mortality rate. Ideally, these two practices should be closer to 100 percent.
The median duration of breastfeeding among Filipinos in this study was 14.1 months, weaning the babies at the age of about a year and two months, compared to Sri Lanka (33), Bangladesh (32.8), Napal (30), and India (24.4). The average in the United States is 2.5 years, usually 3 years for the youngest child.
The World Health Organization recommends breastfeeding “for two years and beyond.” The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends breastfeeding up to “at least one year and as long as it is mutually desired by the mother and the baby.”
Benefits of breast milk
More studies are coming out in favor of breastfeeding for up to at least 3 years old, and in some, up to 5, on top of regular food items. Breast milk provides valuable substances not found in formulas or even in food. It also lowers rates of ear infection, eczema, diarrhea, lower respiratory tract infection, sudden infant death, obesity, leukemia, and childhood diabetes. It also reduces the risk for allergy and asthma, confers immunity to the child against bacterial and viral illnesses, and maximizes brain development, cognitive power, leading to a higher IQ.
Breastfeeding also promotes bonding, especially for toddlers, satisfies the child’s emotional needs, and lowers the risk for breast cancer for the baby when she grows up (formula fed female infants have a higher risk for breast cancer when they grow up). Breastfeeding also helps shrinks the mother’s uterus after childbirth and reduces the mother’s risk for breast and ovarian cancer.
The first 6 years of the child is when the brain develops significantly, double in size by age 8. The years could definitely benefit from the wonder substances in breast milk, as proven science. The decision rests in the mother of today, whose circumstances vary, but who are better educated and very well-informed.
Later weaning is safe, and better
Dr. Dettwyler’s studies on 1,280 children in the United States whose mothers nursed them for more than 3 years showed they were “perfectly fine and they didn’t need therapy and they didn’t think they were having sex with their mothers.”
The burning question is whether breastfeeding for more than 4 years could be accepted as a beneficial biological function or a tabooed cultural activity as practised and scrutinized today by a pragmatic society in a rush.
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Philip S. Chua, MD, FACS, FPCS, Cardiac Surgeon Emeritus in Northwest Indiana and chairman of cardiac surgery from 1997 to 2010 at Cebu Doctors University Hospital, where he holds the title of Physician Emeritus in Surgery, is based in Las Vegas, Nevada. He is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons, the Philippine College of Surgeons, and the Denton A. Cooley Cardiovascular Surgical Society. He is the chairman of the Filipino United Network – USA, a 501(c)(3) humanitarian foundation in the United States. Email: [email protected]
