Right from the very beginning, we as mothers have the privilege of showing to our children a little of what God is like. In the womb the child's trust is in God for sustenance through the mother. Then as the little babe nurses at his/her mother's breast, this baby learns to trust. He/she knows that life, sustenance, and comfort will always be there. Nursing a babe at the breast is a powerful work. Not only are we nourishing our baby, but also we are teaching them, right from birth, what it means to trust in God.
We usually think of the baby's health when we think of breastfeeding, but most people don't realize that it is also advantageous for the mother's health. We were created by God's design to function as nourishers by using the breast. When we don't do this, our whole body is at stake. Read these findings:
* Eight case studies gathered from different countries have been conducted which prove that prolonged breastfeeding is a preventative measure against breast cancer. Herbert Ratner, Editor of Child and Family says,
"If breastfeeding reduces the risk of breast cancer it will be found in women whose babies are totally breastfed for the first six months and with more than one baby. The state of prolonged amenorrhea caused by breastfeeding could very well be the factor associated with the hormonal state that protects against cancer. In this day and age, when supplementary feeding and the early introduction of solids is popular, most breast-feeding is token, not total, and is not associated with the customary prolonged amenorrhea of the totally breast-fed infant."
* Reported in the Science News, October 1992, by Kathy Facelmann, Malcolm C. Pike from the Southern California School of Medicine, Los Angeles "blames the epidemic rates of breast and other female cancers on a fact of modern life: The average American woman starts menstruating at age 12 and typically gives birth to one or two infants. Pike estimates she will ovulate a whopping 450 times during her lifetime.
By contrast, a woman who lived 200 years ago would have started menstruating at age 17 and would have delivered and breastfed about eight babies. Thus our foremothers ovulated fewer than 150 times during their lives. Pike argues that pregnancy and lactation provide a crucial resting period for the ovaries, the female sex glands that produce not only eggs, but also several powerful hormones, including estrogen and progesterone.
Each month, a woman's body readies itself for pregnancy. The ovaries secrete estrogen and progesterone, which tell the breast cells to begin dividing in preparation for milk production. In years past, women went through this cycle less frequently because they were more often either pregnant or breastfeeding."
* "Women who have a full pregnancy before the age of 18 have one third the breast cancer risk of a woman whose first child is delayed until after age 30, or never has a child. One interesting angle on the breastfeeding issue is that the Tania women in Hong Kong, who traditionally only nurse with their right breast, have more cancer in their left breast." Mark Renneker, M.D, Understanding Cancer 24.142.
* "The observed protective effect of lactation on risk of breast cancer can be interpreted in a number of ways. The hormonal changes of lactation (i.e. increased prolactin and decreased estrogen production) may in some way inhibit breast tumor initiation or growth.
During lactation, ovulation often ceases or is less frequent, which may also protect against breast cancer. There could be direct physical effects on the breast associated with lactation that might protect against breast cancer, such as changes in breast ductal epithelial cells in lactation or mechanical 'flushing-out' of carcinogens."
McTeirnan A, Thomas D.B. Evidence for a protective effect of lactation on risk of breast cancer in young women: results from a case-control study. Am J Epidermiol 1986;124:353-8.
* A recent CASH study involving about 9,000 women revealed that the women with the least breast cancer were those who had the most children and thus a longer breastfeeding experience. CASH researcher, Peter Layde, M.D. reports, "We found that women who breastfed a total of two years or more had nearly a third less breast cancer than women who did not breast feed."
