Breastfeeding is best feeding

by Nandkumar Kamat

THERE is no doubt about it. As a male member of the mammalian kingdom I have the proof directly in front of me-another male member of my species, my six month old son Nachiketas. Breastfeeding is best feeding. For past six months his only nourishment is the Mother’s milk. It is nothing short of a miracle. He almost doubled his weight since birth on the singular, protective, immunopotentiating biofluid-the mothers’ milk. We are now much enlightened parents. Initially we could not and did not believe what the books had to say about the importance of breast feeding.

As a biochemist, having studied endocrinological aspects of mammary gland development and lactation, I had pure intellectual curiousity-would it really work, or would our son become malnourished? There was anxiety. But as breastfeeding began it was slowly becoming clear that Nachiketas was absorbing the nutrients without any problem. He was putting on 30-40 grams per day. We were convinced within the first two months that breastfeeding works and it works perfectly, wonderfully. It kept Nachiketas absolutely healthy and happy. A perfect bond was established between him and his mother. To watch a happy infant sucking at his mothers’ breast contentedly, is a divine sight. It is nature at its evolutionary best.

A poet has termed the breasts as ‘domes of love’ but actually that is a limited sensual description of the ‘fountains of nourishment’. Besides nutritional elements the mothers’ milk contains antibodies, natural painkillers and satiating and soothing hormones-which keep the babies relaxed and happy. Humans are mammals, primates. We belong to the super family of great apes. If we watch our distant genetically related cousins who stopped in the track of evolution-chimpanzees, Orang utans, Baboons, Gorillas-in their wild habitats then it is apparent that their females breastfeed the young with a lot of affection and care.

World’s tribal people have not given up this practice. Urbanisation, growth of nuclear families, the moving away from traditional feeds and diets combined with the discovery of the bottle feeders, infant feeds, dehydrated milk powder, infant formulations heavily impacted the human society in the best part of the 20th century. A feeding bottle can never substitute mother’s nourishment. Breastfeeding is a tiring job. Its’ unpredictable frequency can throw off a woman’s routine-disturbing her biorhythms, keeping her awake, causing sleep deprivation, irritation, weight loss, fatigue. To escape from these testing natural duties, the feeding bottle came to replace breastfeeding.

The promoters of infant feed formulae aggressively advertised their temptingly packaged products. They even produced supporting but dubious and questionable medical proof to influence the consumers. But medical research was getting increasingly convinced about the proven beneficial effects of breastfeeding. The tide turned in favour of breastfeeding some 25 years ago. I was amazed to hear from my mother that except me other siblings were never breastfed. This was precisely the period when breastfeeding was not being promoted as it is today. Tins of so-called ‘baby milk’ used to get piled up in our house.

More or less this was a story of a full generation born in Goa after Liberation. The turnaround came probably with the introduction of Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) in India. Slowly, the mothers could get convinced. Promotion of breastfeeding is now a dedicated international movement under The World Alliance for Breastfeeding Action (WABA). It was formed in 1991 to act on the Innocenti Declaration (1990) to protect, promote and support breastfeeding. The declaration pronounced from Florence, Italy was a revolutionary paradigm shift in modern human society. For the first time global opinion was converging with the singular aim of ensuring a healthy growth of the infants-the way nature has programmed it biochemically, immunologically.

The Innocenti Declaration was produced and adopted by participants at the WHO/UNICEF policymakers’ meeting on ‘Breastfeeding in the 1990s: A Global Initiative’, co-sponsored by the United States Agency for International Development (AID) and the Swedish International Development Authority (SIDA), held at the Spedale degli Innocenti, Florence, Italy on July 30 – August 1 1990. The15th anniversary of the declaration was observed in 2005. The preamble of Innocenti declaration defines breastfeeding as a unique process “that provides ideal nutrition for infants and contributes to their healthy growth and development and which reduces incidence and severity of infectious diseases, thereby lowering infant morbidity and mortality and contributes to women’s health by reducing the risk of breast and ovarian cancer, and by increasing the spacing between pregnancies provides social and economic benefits to the family and the nation. The declaration claimed that – “these benefits increase with increased exclusiveness of breastfeeding during the first six months of life, and thereafter with increased duration of breastfeeding with complementary foods, and programmer intervention can result in positive changes in breastfeeding behaviour”.

As part of its action plan to facilitate and strengthen social mobilisation for breastfeeding, WABA envisioned a global unifying breastfeeding promotion strategy. A day dedicated to breastfeeding was suggested to be marked in the calendar of international events. Later a day’s celebration was turned into a week. This has come to be known as World Breastfeeding Week celebrated every August 1-7 to commemorate the Innocenti Declaration.

World Breastfeeding Week was first celebrated in 1992. Now it involves over 120 countries and is endorsed by UNICEF, WHO and FAO.

The government of India has been strongly championing the promotion of breastfeeding. The first few hours, days and weeks in an infants’ vulnerable life are critical. Mothers’ milk is the only defense at these moments. It is the nature’s powerful biological shield. The immunologists are overwhelmed by the powerful antibacterial and antiviral properties of human milk. Actually breastfeeding need to come naturally to Indian mothers. Indian civilization always boasted of a ‘breastfeeding culture’. There are folksongs on the ‘‘mothers’ love flowing through breast milk’’.

Goa and Kerala may have less infant mortality than other states. But this is not the excuse to deviate from breastfeeding. It is basic right of the human infants. Support the initiative of the Goa government to spread the message of the importance of breastfeeding during this week. We owe it to the present and the future generations. Breastfeeding is best feeding.