Natural Family Planning International

. Both acts are necessary in God’s plan for the continuation of the human race. Both acts are normally essential for life. The marriage act is needed to create new persons and to help the bonding of the spouses, and the breastfeeding act is needed for the survival of those new persons and for the bonding of mother and baby. It’s true that today science can create babies without the marriage act, and we can also feed babies without the mother. The latter is sometimes even necessary for the life of the baby and thus a great good. Frequently, however, it is done primarily for the convenience of the parents, and this unhappy practice has become the social custom in many cultures. Because breastfeeding is so uncommon, we tend to forget the important role it should play in feeding and nurturing infants and young children

. In both acts, a woman gives herself bodily: in the marriage act, to her husband, and in the breastfeeding act, to her baby. The woman’s giving to her husband should not detract from her giving to her baby. Likewise her giving to her baby or child should not detract from the love shown to her husband. Love is not exclusive or limiting. There is no restriction. The relationship that a woman has with her husband and with her baby are obviously different, but both relationships involve giving and loving. Neither relationship should detract from the other. A good husband appreciates his wife’s important role as mother in nurturing his children. In addition, breastfeeding, once established, becomes such an easy activity. The mother can converse with her husband, be affectionate, and share in his interests and activities and still be with and nurse her baby.

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.

For World Breastfeeding Week (WBW), August 1-7, 2013, I have chosen to use my chapter on “Breastfeeding and the Marriage Act” in my book, Breastfeeding and Catholic Motherhood.  It is the only source I know that relates the theology of the body to breastfeeding.
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Many comparisons can be made between the marriage act and the act of breastfeeding. In pointing out such similarities, I don’t mean to denigrate the sacrament of Matrimony. God established marriage from the beginning of the human race, and Christ raised marriage between two Christians to the level of a sacrament. The marriage act is of utmost importance and value; in it, a man and wife become co-creators with God in bringing children into the world. Experts who study the health of society speak about the importance of the strength and permanence of the husband-wife marital relationship as well as the importance of how parents, especially mothers, raise their young. In addition, many acts involving service or gift of self to others (such as teacher to students or priest to parishioners) also have avenues for comparison. This is an area where I hope future theologians will develop deeper thoughts concerning maternal nursing.

I offer eleven simple points of comparison between breastfeeding and the marriage act, in the hope of further elevating the importance of each:
. They are voluntary acts between two persons.
. Both acts are normally essential for life.
. The woman offers her body to her husband in the marriage act and to her baby in the breastfeeding act.
. Both acts in Scripture are used to describe God’s love for his people.
. Both acts involve love through intimacy, physical closeness, and emotional bonding.
. Both acts normally involve physical pleasure.
. Both acts can impact the health of a family and thus society.
. Both acts ought to involve a gift of self to another.
. The Pope’s theology of the body applies to both acts.
. Each act involves a love that unifies the two persons.
. Both acts have two orders, the order of nature and the personal order.

Sheila Kippley
Breastfeeding and Catholic Motherhood
Sophia 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.  A priest in Wisconsin gives this book to all moms with whom he prepares for a baptism class and for marriage prep.
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