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Breastfeeding and the Theology of the Body

Sunday, September 23rd, 2018

In the light of the Scandal, it’s a good time to remind ourselves that the vast majority of priests, probably at least 95%, are truly good men. Here are comments about Breastfeeding and Catholic Motherhood (2005) by some priests including a bishop and a cardinal. In this book the theology of the body is applied to that wonderful bodily act of breastfeeding.

“Thank you very much for sending me your Breastfeeding and Catholic Motherhood. You have done much good in this area where all too little has been done through the years. I found it very enlightening.”
Fr. Paul B. Marx, OSB

“This book was an eye-opener for me.”
Fr. Bill McCarthy
My Father’s House Spiritual Life and Retreat Center
Moodus, CT

“It is with great pleasure that I send you the Foreword as my contribution for your new book in your continual efforts to sustain motherhood in one of its fundamental tasks.”
+Alfonso Cardinal López Trujillo
President, Pontifical Council for the Family

“By skillfully weaving together Scripture, scientific research and anecdotal evidence, Sheila Kippley has fashioned a solid case for what our grandmothers knew from experience: A breastfed baby makes for a happy, well-adjusted adult. Would that mothers today would rediscover this important secret!”
Bishop Victor Galeone
Episcopal Moderator for NFP
USCCB Pro-Life Activities Committee

“With easy-to-read simplicity and an eye for the basics, Kippley gives us a balance of religious truth, scientific facts, and practical advice. Present this book as a gift to a pregnant woman, if you wish to affirm in love a mother and her child.”
Fr. William D. Virtue
Author, Mother and Infant

“Your book gets a much needed message out to the public. It is something a good priest should know and where he can point people to learn more.”
Fr. David V. Meconi, S.J.
Teacher, writer

Sheila Kippley
PS: We closed the comments due to the many scams. Anyone wanting to be added to this or other blogs can contact us at the NFP International website and your comment will be heard.

Posted in Ecological Breastfeeding, Priests & Parishes, Theology of the Body | Comments Off on Breastfeeding and the Theology of the Body

Breastfeeding and Theology of the Body

Sunday, August 11th, 2013

What others are saying….

The Theology of the Body is most often applied to the relationship between man and woman, but it also applies in a special way to the nursing relationship between a mother and her baby.  Through the act of breastfeeding, a mother gives of her very self to her baby, giving not only food but love and comfort as well.  This giving relationship reflects the donative meaning of the body.  Our bodies make sense only in light of giving them and using them for others.  And a nursing mother constantly gives her body — her arms, her breasts, her eyes — to her baby.  She is rewarded when her baby begins to smile at her, caress her, and even kick with joy as she prepares to nurse him or her….
The delicate interplay of nutrition, love, and comfort involved when a mother nurses her baby can also provide the benefit of natural postpartum infertility.  There is a form of Natural Family Planning called Ecological Breastfeeding, or eco-breastfeeding.  Eco-breastfeeding is, in fact, the original form of NFP, which often kept the birth interval at 3-5 years in primitive societies.

Maureen Armendariz
NFPI Teacher
_____

A mother writes:  I read Breastfeeding and Catholic Motherhood about a year ago and it brought so much peace as it reaffirmed my beliefs about the importance of this bond. Lately I have been trying to research my vocation as wife and mother so that I can cooperate fully with God in my vocation.
I have been saddened by books by good Catholic authors, but they seem to be folks who have children sleeping through the night soon after birth, a modern common parenting theme. This seemed to influence their parenting advice which I didn’t feel fully comfortable with. In my continued research regarding my vocation I was excited to come across works on Theology of the Body and felt this should also be explored with regards to breastfeeding.
I began to read some articles on this theology and ran across a stumbling block that caused me to research more. But after tears and frantic research, I pulled out Breastfeeding and Catholic Motherhood again and here Sheila so eloquently put into words all that God had led my heart to in my search to resolve this issue. And it seems to boil down to this: that an interpretation of the Theology of the Body which is not applied to Ecological Breastfeeding is certainly incomplete.
_________

What every woman, man, and Catholic bishop and priest need to know about God’s plan for spacing babies.

Breastfeeding is God’s plan for the nurturing and nourishing the baby.

Breastfeeding protects the baby from certain diseases.  If baby gets sick, it is usually milder with breastfeeding.

Breastfeeding protects the mother from certain diseases.

Mother and baby are one biological unit during pregnancy and also during breastfeeding.  Like pregnancy, the breastfeeding keeps the mother with her baby.

The Church promotes systematic NFP through its many programs.  The Church should also promote the natural spacing of births with ecological breastfeeding.  This is the preferred method for couples to space their babies.  Unlike systematic NFP, you do not need a serious reason to use this most natural family planning method which usually requires little or no abstinence.  It’s a win-win-win-win situation with so many benefits involved for the mother and baby, for society, and for the Church.  And it’s following God’s plan!  What are we waiting for?  Let’s get the message out there!
Sheila Kippley

 

 

 

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7 Breastfeeding and Theology of the Body

Wednesday, August 7th, 2013

. Both acts have two orders: the order of nature and the personal order. In Love and Responsibility, Pope John Paul II also speaks frequently of the marriage relationship. His discourse on the sexual relationship between husband and wife may also apply to the breastfeeding relationship between mother and child. The Pope discusses two orders involved in the sexual relationship: the natural order and the personal order. These two orders, he says, cannot be separated because “each depends upon the other.” The Pope says that the natural order in the sexual relationship has reproduction as its object. The same can be said about breastfeeding, which also has as its object the completion of the reproductive cycle.

Remember that the reproductive cycle ends with breastfeeding, not after childbirth, because the baby’s total dependence upon the mother’s body for protection and nutrition occurs both during pregnancy and during the early months of breastfeeding. In addition, reproduction depends upon the fertility-infertility cycle of the woman. The infertility of the woman during pregnancy continues during breastfeeding for months or a year or two.

The personal order of the sexual relationship between husband and wife has love as its object, and this love is expressed between the two persons involved. The same personal order also applies to breastfeeding. The personal order of the breastfeeding relationship between mother and baby has love as its object, and this love is expressed between the two persons involved.

Thus, the two orders — the natural order and the personal order — of the sexual relationship between man and woman are also present in the breastfeeding relationship between mother and baby. In God’s plan, both relationships have a natural order and a personal order that depend on each other; the objects of each order, for the marriage act and for the breastfeeding act, are reproduction and self-giving love.

Sheila Kippley
Breastfeeding and Catholic Motherhood
Sophia (800-888-9344) is offering a 25% discount to any order for Breastfeeding and Catholic Motherhood (paperback and eBook) during World Breastfeeding Week, August 1-7.  Offer expires Aug. 7, 11:59 PM.  Use promo code WBW25 when ordering.  Get this book for yourself, a priest, a seminarian, an expectant mother and religion teachers.

Posted in Ecological Breastfeeding, Theology of the Body, WBW 2013 | 1 Comment »

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