Yesterday I shared how day care is counterfeit for a mother being with her little one in the home. There is no way to give back to your child all they miss by being in daycare and away from mother. The constancy of motherhood can never be duplicated. In fact, the baby begins to bond with the mother while in the womb and listens to hear her voice when coming into the world.
It is interesting to note that when a babe is nursing at the breast and their eyes begin to focus, their first focal length is about eight inches, the length from the baby’s eyes to the mother’s face. God intends that the first thing a baby beholds is his or her mother’s face. Face to face is true communication. It begins at the breast and should continue through life.
That’s why it is important for us to gather our families around the table to enjoy face to face table fellowship. When we do not eat our meals together and when family members are instead glued to social media, they are not living in reality but a counterfeit world.
It is God’s plan for the mother to nurse her baby from the breast. Bottle feeding is also counterfeit. Now please don’t get upset. I know there are sometimes physical difficulties that don’t allow a woman to breastfeed. I have dear friends who have faced this problem. But we know it is God’s original plan and therefore the mother needs to be with her baby. The baby needs her, and she needs her baby. The nursing mother is blessed with oxytocin and prolactin which release calming, joyful, and mothering hormones that enable her to mother even more intimately and powerfully.
Now here’s another counterfeit, the pacifier. It’s actually a “mother substitute.” Oh my, I hope that doesn’t make you too angry with me. I’m not saying you shouldn’t use one, but the fact of the matter is that God created our babies with a sucking instinct that is to be satisfied by the mother. Sometimes we can’t believe that our baby wants to nurse AGAIN, and he has only just been fed.
Nursing a baby is far more than just feeding a baby. It is nursing the baby to minister to every need of the baby. When we read Isaiah 66:10-13 we see an allegory of where God likens the city of Jerusalem to a nursing mother. We don’t even read the word food, but we read the beautiful attributes to satisfy, console, delight, comfort, and the anointing of peace. The baby needs more sucking than only for feeding. It is important for their facial development. It is important for their inner soul.
And once again, it is a blessing to the mother. The more the mother suckles her baby at the breast, the more she holds back ovulation. Satisfying the baby’s sucking needs is a natural form of contraception.
A few thoughts for you to contemplate.
Love and blessings from Nancy Campbell
Painting: "Maternity," 1959 -- by Jurandir Ubirajara Campos