Alma Mater: Nourishing Mother – The Beautiful Blessing of Breastfeeding
Image: Magdalen Master - Virgin and Child Enthroned with Saints Leonard and Peter and Scenes from the Life of Saint Peter,
Master of the Magdalen (fl. 1250–1300)
The earliest image ever found of the Blessed Virgin Mary is the Madonna of the Catacombs, a third-century fresco on a wall in the Catacombs of Priscilla, beneath the Roman road Via Salaria. She is nursing the Infant Jesus at her breast, while a man beside them points to a star, indicating the prophecy of Balaam: “A star shall rise out of Jacob.” (Numbers 24:17)
Picture: Blessed Virgin Mary is the Madonna of the Catacombs, a third-century fresco on a wall in the Catacombs of Priscilla
Breastfeeding is one of the most primal actions of a mother, a bodily function that female mammals share. The World Health Organization recommends that it begins within the first hour following birth and continues up to two years and beyond. It is a natural way of boosting the infant’s immunity as well as the mother’s health.
At the same time, breastfeeding can prove a challenge for some, especially those who have never done it before. It was painful latching my newborn son in the days just after birth, and he began to lose weight dangerously as he was not feeding enough. We had to supplement with formula to keep him alive. I had pre-eclampsia like my mother did, and she was unable to breastfeed me at all after her Caesarean section.
Thankfully, after a few days, an experienced midwife showed my husband how to help me express milk – it gave him a purpose in the hospital, where he was feeling pretty useless, and it made me feel not so alone in my breastfeeding journey! He and our friends and relatives were able to share in the tender joy of feeding the baby in the following weeks.
In the end, I was able to breastfeed my son for the first three years of his life, and his sister tandem-fed for one and a half years. Not only did we save money on formula, but we also enjoyed the bonding time that comes with nursing – they held hands across my chest as they fed. It was also an easy way to comfort them or put them to sleep. Breastfeeding releases the hormone cholecystokinin, which makes babies sleepy.
Biological Wonder
God has tailored breastmilk to the specific needs of each baby. The composition of a mother’s milk changes in response to a baby’s health or stage of growth. When a sick baby’s saliva backwashes into the milk ducts, the mammary glands increase antibodies in the milk, helping the baby fight off infection.
This also occurs when a mother kisses her baby, picking up pathogens on the child’s skin which enter the mother’s lymphatic system, producing antibodies that pass through the breastmilk to the baby.
Both the composition and volume of breastmilk change significantly as a baby develops, adapting to the baby’s needs. Mothers of premature babies produce milk with more calories, fat, protein and sodium than mothers of babies born at full term.
As birth approaches, hormones in the placenta trigger the production of colostrum, a thick yellow fluid known as liquid gold. This is full of protein, copper, zinc and immunoglobulins, and magnesium, crucial to the growth of the baby’s heart and bones.
Colostrum establishes a healthy gut for the baby. A lactation consultant told us to harvest the pre-birth colostrum in syringes for our babies and freeze it, so that if our babies fell sick, we could re-seed their guts with good bacteria.
Steve Hoffman writes: “Two of the last systems to be finished during gestation are the immune and digestive systems. Babies’ immune systems take years to fully develop, and they rely on their mother’s immunity to stay healthy. We also don’t come out ready to eat pepperoni pizza. The colostrum helps ‘finish’ these systems. It is no different for other mammals, and most mammals cannot even survive without the colostrum.”
The next stage is transitional milk, produced from about four days to two weeks post-birth. Finally, the mother produces mature milk for the rest of her breastfeeding journey. This milk keeps evolving according to the baby’s requirements and throughout the day, with different levels of nutrients and hormones. Tryptophan is produced in evening milk, inducing sleep and promoting serotonin, which is necessary for brain development and function.
Even during a single feed, the fat content of breastmilk changes, beginning with watery foremilk that quenches the baby’s thirst, and progressing to fattier hindmilk for the child’s energy needs. The baby can get the exact kind of milk he needs through the way he suckles and the duration he chooses to feed.
The mother’s breasts can detect even a one-degree fluctuation in her baby’s body temperature and adjust her milk to heat up or cool down the baby as required. On hot days, the milk’s water content may increase for extra hydration.
Breastmilk’s flavour and nutrients also change with the mother’s diet. Studies have shown that breastfeeding babies particularly enjoy the tastes of vanilla, garlic and cinnamon.
Maternal Devotion
The depiction of Our Lady nursing the Christ Child is known as Virgo Lactans, or in Italian, Madonna del Latte (“Madonna of Milk”); in Spanish, La Virgen de la Leche. In Greek, she is called Galaktotrophousa, “The Milk Giver”; in Russian, Mlekopitatelnitsa.
In the fourth century, the deacon and hymnographer St Ephrem the Syrian meditated on this marvellous paradox of the Incarnation:
When [Jesus] sucked the milk of Mary, He was suckling all with Life. While He was lying on His Mother’s bosom, in His bosom were all creatures lying. He was silent as a Babe, and yet He was making His creatures execute all His commands. (Hymns on the Nativity, Hymn 3)
It was common in medieval times to portray Mother Mary breastfeeding; back then, before Victorian prudery, it was not such a sexualised sight, but simply a normal part of life – the nourishing of a child. This Marian devotion was popularised by the Cistercians. There was a legend about the notable Cistercian St Bernard of Clairvaux (1091-1153), known as The Lactation of St Bernard.
The story goes that St Bernard was praying before a statue of Our Lady: “Show yourself a mother.” Suddenly, the statue came to life, and the Blessed Mother squirted her milk into the saint’s mouth, bestowing on him the gifts of healing and wisdom.
The Dominicans promoted the devotion to the Madonna of Humility, created by the Sienese painter Simone Martini around the year 1300. The word “humility”, just like the word “human”, is derived from the Latin humus, meaning earth. As medievalist Sandra Miesel relates at Catholic Culture:
Mary sits on the ground tenderly nursing Jesus. He turns toward the viewer, welcoming us to share this intimate moment and acknowledge His full humanity. Paradoxically, Mary is decked with the sun, moon, and stars of the Apocalyptic Woman (Revelation 12:1); being humblest has made her highest.
In the Old Testament, breastfeeding had the spiritual connotation of being granted God’s blessings or infused with wisdom:
Rejoice with Jerusalem, and be glad for her,
all you who love her;
rejoice with her in joy,
all you who mourn over her;
that you may suck and be satisfied
with her consoling breasts;
that you may drink deeply with delight
from the abundance of her glory. (Isaiah 66:10-11)
This passage is the Introit for the Mass on Mothering Sunday, also known as Laetare Sunday, the Fourth Sunday of Lent. On this day, we traditionally visit and honour our mother church, where we were baptised and became a child of God.
In the New Testament, St Paul associated breastfeeding with the transmission of the Christian faith:
But I, brethren, could not address you as spiritual men, but as men of the flesh, as babes in Christ. I fed you with milk, not solid food; for you were not ready for it; and even yet you are not ready, for you are still of the flesh. (1 Corinthians 3:1-3)
Pope Francis has spoken highly of breastfeeding too:
Babies have their own dialect. If one starts to cry the others will follow, like in an orchestra. If they start doing the “concert”, it’s because they’re not comfortable. Either they’re too hot, or they’re not comfortable, or they’re hungry. If they’re hungry, breastfeed them, without fear, feed them, because that’s the language of love.
Breastfeeding is a sacrificial act; mothers must ensure that we ourselves are properly nourished in order to take on this awesome task. The Church dispenses pregnant and breastfeeding mothers from fasting and abstinence, highlighting the paramount role of motherhood.
In one year, breastfeeding takes approximately 1,800 hours. A full-time job with three weeks’ vacation takes about 1,960 hours. I am fortunate to be able to work from home at a desk job, so I was able to breastfeed my son in one arm while typing with the other hand!
Producing breastmilk consumes 25% of the body’s energy – by comparison, the brain uses 20%. The metabolic energy required to breastfeed each day is equivalent to running seven miles or 11.27 kilometres.
So, if you see someone breastfeeding, a word of encouragement would not go amiss, particularly in modern society where some frown upon it, not understanding its importance beyond the newborn stage. It is a glorious, natural and crucial function of the human body, sustaining and optimising the health of the next generation. And it is a magnificent symbol of God’s love for us, that the Infinite Creator deigned to become a helpless human baby, dependent on his mother for nourishment and his adoptive father for protection. As one mother muses about Mary’s role as the wet-nurse of salvation: “He was nourished by her body so that He could redeem us with His.”
