The World Breastfeeding Week is celebrated in our country during the first week of November in order to bring out the benefits of breastfeeding for the mother and the baby/toddler. The slogan set for 2017 is “We support breastfeeding – Together!” considering breastfeeding as the main key pushing us to think ways on how to appreciate our well-being, how to respect each other and how to care for the world.
Indubitably, breastfeeding is considered to be the best nutrition method for children and it contributes both to normal physical and mental development of the baby in the short and long terms.
The procedure of breastfeeding seems to have positive consequences on the mental health of babies. More specifically, it helps reinforcing the mother – baby bond as the baby, from the first moment after labour, comes to skin-to-skin contact with the mother, and therefore can caress her, smell her and feel the warmth and love she offers (Charami, Mazarakou, & Tsouromokos, 2014). Putting the baby at the mother’s breast during the first hours of its life, stops the baby’s crying and calms it. The baby’s senses are immediately developed – touch, smell and taste-, the baby’s hunger is satisfied and it feels the sense of pleasure. This whole procedure develops the first emotions of the baby as well as its sense of safety.
Furthermore, Freud thought that the breastfeeding procedure plays an important role in creating the bond between the baby and the mother, since the bond developing between them affects the person’s course (Info Project, 2006). Food becomes the link in developing the first relationship of the child with the mother, which shall be the base for the healthy psycho-emotional development of the child. Breastfeeding gives the baby the chance for greater physical contact, reminding it of the sense of safety that it enjoyed during gestation. Many theoretic approaches claim that through breastfeeding the baby identifies its existence with the mother’s one, while stopping breastfeeding signals the first realisation of itself as a separate entity.
Bowlby, developing the “bond theory”, claimed that the baby’s normal need to create a bond with the basic carer (usually the mother) with healthy attachment elements, leads to evolution and extension of this bond to future social relationships with others. It is scientifically proven that babies breastfeeding have more intimate and healthy relationships with the other members of the family (Mohammad & Haymond, 2012). Consequently, breastfeeding contributes both to the normal psycho-emotional development of the baby and to the creation of people feeling more secure, independent, who do not experience separation anxiety and who develop a better emotional environment.
During early childhood, breastfeeding still offers emotional coverage in the young child stimulating its psycho-motor development and protecting it from mental diseases.
Based on scientific research, children who have been breastfed for a period longer than six months or a year, seem to have shaped “stronger” family relationships compared to those who have not been breastfed at all (Info Project, 2006).
To sum up, mother’s milk helps in “creating physically and mentally healthy children and adults” (Charami, Mazarakou, & Tsouromokos, 2014), who can become useful citizens and contribute to prosperity of society.
by Maroula Kandyli, MSc, MBPsS, MBACP, MBABCP Counselling Psychologist & Cognitive-Behavioural Psychotherapist Official Partner of Attachment Parenting Hellas Attached at the Heart Parent Educator
REFERENCES
- Info Project, Center for Communication Programs, The J. Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. (2006). Breastfeeding Is Best. Population Reports, 33(3), 12-13.
- Mohammad, M. A., & Haymond, M. W. (2012). The Magic of Mother’s Milk. Diabetes, 61(12), 3076-3077.
- Charami, Ε., Mazarakou, Ch., & Tsouromokos, D., (2014). Effects of breastfeeding on babies’ mental health. Greek Medicine Archives 2015, 32(2), 245-239.