Natural Family Planning International

First, both acts are necessary for the survival of the human race.  Both acts involve loving voluntary relationships.  The love between husband and wife brings forth a child and the love of the mother through breastfeeding ensures the child’s survival after birth.  Both acts are meant to be pleasurable so that the husband and wife will want to come together and so that the mother will remain committed to the task of breastfeeding.

Both are associated with the reproductive cycle.  The marital act puts the reproductive cycle at rest once a child is conceived.  The cycle remains at rest (no more cycling) while the child grows in the womb.  The reproductive cycle, by nature’s norm, continues to remain at rest with frequent and unrestricted breastfeeding by the mother.  According to nature’s norm, to have menstruation return within three months postpartum would be an exception—not the norm.  To go one or two years without cycling after childbirth is normal for a mother doing ecological breastfeeding.

In Love and Responsibility, Pope John Paul II has written that in the sexual relationship between the spouses, two orders meet: the order of nature which has as its object reproduction, and the personal order which finds its expression in the love of the persons.  I submit that breastfeeding also has two orders that meet: the order of nature which has as its object the completion of the reproductive cycle, and the personal order in which it is an expression of love between mother and child.

Next week: Ecological breastfeeding and the mother being irreplaceable.

Sheila Kippley

1) With both pregnancy and ecological breastfeeding, the mother provides continuous nourishment for her baby.

2) With both pregnancy and breastfeeding, the baby has close physical contact with the mother’s body.  After leaving the womb, a baby continues to receive much needed touch and close physical contact from the mother through the breastfeeding.  A baby has a need for his mother’s presence just as much as he has a need for her milk.

Just as babies were nourished and nurtured in the womb of their mother during pregnancy, so they were meant to be nurtured and nourished at their mother’s breasts after childbirth.

3) With both pregnancy and breastfeeding, amenorrhea is a natural condition.  God provided a natural baby spacer through nine months of pregnancy and many more months of breastfeeding.  In His wisdom, God knows mothers need a break—both physically and emotionally.  Unfortunately most mothers do not know about ecological breastfeeding, and they nurse in such a way that their fertility returns soon after childbirth.  If 100 American mothers follow the Seven Standards of ecological breastfeeding, they will average 14.5 months without any periods after childbirth.

4) The most important point is that the oneness of mother and baby during pregnancy continues with the oneness of the mother and baby during breastfeeding.  This oneness of the nursing mother and baby should be encouraged and protected both by society and by the Church.

Next week: The mother is irreplaceable.

Sheila Kippley

4) Breastfeeding helps the mother become a “gift of self” to her baby.
Breastfeeding helps a mother learn to put her baby first and to give of her time for the needs of her baby.  This learning process occurs in an easy and natural way.  God knows that mothers are very busy and can very easily ignore their babies.  His plan keeps bringing the baby back to the mother for food and comfort at the breast and in her arms.

5) Breastfeeding has some similarities to the marital act.
John Paul II has written in Love and Responsibility that in the sexual relationship between the spouses or in the marital act two orders meet: the order of nature which has as its object reproduction and the personal order which finds its expression in the love of persons.  Breastfeeding likewise has two orders that meet: the order of nature which has its object the completion of the reproductive cycle and the personal order which finds its expression of love between mother and child.

Both acts, the marital and breastfeeding, involve a communion of persons.  Both should involve the service of life and should involve loving fidelity.

By following the natural order, we mean that the mother uses her own God-given equipment—her breasts to nourish and comfort her baby, her arms, back or chest to carry the baby, and her lap and arms to hold the baby.  The mother remains physically close to her baby, follows the baby’s cues with regard to his hunger, his tiredness, his alertness, and his need to be comforted.  This natural type of mothering is called ecological breastfeeding.

6) Breastfeeding has some similarities to pregnancy.
In 2 Maccabees (Ch. 7, verse 27), a mother tells her youngest son  “I carried you nine months in the womb and nursed you for three years, and have reared you and brought you up to his point in your life, and have taken care of you.”  The care of this mother began in pregnancy and continued at the breast.  During pregnancy and breastfeeding, mother and baby are one biological unit.  The only difference is that after childbirth the baby has switched positions.

Next week: More on how breastfeeding is similar to pregnancy.

Sheila Kippley
The Seven Standards of Ecological Breastfeeding