I recently read an interesting article focusing on breastfeeding on demand, comparing rituals in the West with those of other cultures. It was quite remarkable to note considerable cultural differences.
Several decades ago, breastfeeding in North America was on the decline. Many new mothers automatically swapped breast milk for formula. Women who chose to breastfeed may have experienced challenges, such as lack of support from family, friends, and their G.P.’s. Even in hospitals, newborns were often supplemented with formula to allow mothers additional time to sleep, delaying needed cues for increased milk supply. Once home, women were instructed to abide by regular feeding schedules for their babies. Breastfeeding on demand, where mothers respond to their babies’ hunger cues, was typically only practiced if non-Western cultural influences were present.
Today, in Canada, breastfeeding has come back into grace. It is widely practiced, at least for the first 6 months after birth. Nevertheless, there continue to be striking differences in breastfeeding practices around the world. Below, are some excerpts of the aforementioned article:
Evolutionary, cross-cultural, and clinical research suggests that babies were designed to feed on cue. [ ] Women living in Westernized, industrial societies face special problems that can make demand feeding more difficult. [ ] Breast milk production is keyed to the frequency of suckling. The more a baby nurses, the more milk a breast produces. If a baby suckles less frequently, milk production slows. For this reason, breastfeeding on demand is the ideal way to keep a mother’s milk production in sync with her baby’s needs. In the first days of a baby’s life, cue feeding can be crucial to establish an adequate milk supply. It also helps newborns regain their birth weight more quickly. Moreover: women’s breasts vary in the amount of milk they can produce at one feeding; the caloric content of milk may vary by time of day and mother’s diet; babies vary in their ability to extract milk efficiently; babies also vary in their stomach capacities.
Breastfeeding on demand permits babies to cope with the quirks of their particular situation. When babies are forced to adopt a rigid, timed schedule, some babies have difficulty getting enough to eat. In addition, lactation consultants often note that babies who are left to cry for access to the breast-―even for a few minutes-―may become unsettled and upset. This makes it hard for them to latch on correctly, decreasing the efficiency of their feeds. For these reasons, baby-led breastfeeding is now recommended by: The World Health Organization; The American Academy of Pediatrics; La Leche League.
[ ] Breastfeeding soothes and reduces pain (Shah et al 2006). It provides babies with skin-to-skin contact―-a practice that promotes mother-infant attachment (Moore et al 2007) and helps regulate a baby’s body temperature and blood glucose levels (Anderson et al 2003). Skin-to-skin contact is also associated with higher rates of head growth in preterm infants (Rojas 2003). Babies show signs of reduced stress while breastfeeding, and Kerstin Uvnas Moberg, an eminent physiologist and endocrinologist (MD, PhD), believes that breastfeeding bouts may boost babies’ levels of oxytocin―the “cuddle” hormone (Uvnas Moberg 2003). All this suggests that breastfeeding on demand may help babies regulate more than their caloric intake.
How often–on average–do babies feed? As noted above, babies vary―both as individuals and across cultures. Hunter-gatherer babies nurse very frequently―-twice an hour or more. In the West, mothers who identify themselves as “baby-led” feeders may not nurse more than once every two hours. This disparity has led some researchers to question whether “breastfeeding on demand” means the same thing cross-culturally.
[ ] Our hunter-gatherer ancestors didn’t keep strict schedules. Neither have most people throughout human history. People have always had work to do, but they didn’t have clocks and their work-days varied according to the season and the tasks they had to perform. The idea of reporting to work each day at precisely the same time―and putting in the same, inflexible hours―is associated with Western industrialization.
[ ] The Western model of sleep―-that you lie down at the same time each night and sleep for 7-8 continuous hours―-is another cross-cultural oddity. Anthropologists and historians have documented a very different pattern of sleep in other cultures (Worthman and Melby 2002; Ekirch). People who live without artificial light get more sleep overall. And people rarely consolidate their sleep into one long interval. Instead, they sleep for shorter intervals at different times throughout the day and night.
[ ] This opportunistic sleep style may be the norm for our species. And it is certainly more descriptive of how babies sleep than is the Western model.[ ] Other peculiar characteristics of Western culture are solitary sleeping and the practice of leaving babies to sleep in cribs or cots. When babies and mothers sleep apart, night feedings become very disruptive. Typically, both mother and baby become fully aroused from their sleep, making it difficult for them to resume sleeping when the feed is over. But in most non-Western cultures, people sleep with others (Worthman and Melby 2002). Infants are not left alone.
In a recent cross-cultural review of child care practices in non-industrialized societies, researchers found that babies shared beds with parents in 23 out of 26 societies surveyed (Severn Nelson et al 2000). An earlier, more extensive analysis of 90 cultures found no cases where mothers and infants slept in separate rooms (Barry and Paxton 1971).
When mothers and babies sleep together, breastfeeding on demand becomes much less disruptive to maternal sleep. This is particularly true when moms and babies sleep in the same bed. The baby awakens at night, and is fed right there―in bed―while both parties are lying down. The nursing couple need never wake all the way up (McKenna and Bernshaw 1995).
[ ] For Western moms, breastfeeding on demand is particularly difficult when they leave home. Many Westerners are uncomfortable around breastfeeding, and few public places provide space for mothers to breastfeed discreetly.
Reference
Dewar Ph.D., Gwen; “Breastfeeding on demand: an anthropological guide”; Parenting Science (www.parentingscience.com); 2008