Q: What is the one thing ONLY mothers can do to help reduce landfill waste, preserve valued energy, and help prevent deforestation?

A: Produce breast milk to feed their children.

As people from around the globe commemorate "Earth Day," human milk remains the ultimate natural renewable resource and perhaps the most overlooked way of helping to create a healthier planet.

The National Post published an article on March 14 that  described a study about how the World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines around breastfeeding, and the way the medical community communicates those guidelines, influences the breastfeeding decisions of mothers.

After an article was posted on a Canadian web news site yesterday some people have expressed outrage at the idea that LLL New Zealand recommended not using a photo that showed a well-known Maori rugby player feeding his baby with a bottle. The image was intended to be part of an anti-smoking campaign, and the government agency responsible for the campaign consulted with various community groups, as usual.

Even if you’re not on Facebook, you may have heard about this: a mother, proud of her breastfeeding relationship with her baby, posts a photo of her nursing baby on her Facebook profile. Her friends are posting photos of their babies doing all kinds of adorable things, and she thinks nothing of adding a shot of her little one breastfeeding.

Extravagant Affection

When my children were babies, they spent most of their time in my arms (or in a wrap or carrier that kept them close to me). That’s where they liked to be, and I liked keeping them happy.

 But I got lots of criticism. People told me I was spoiling them, that it wasn’t good for babies to be held and cuddled so much, that babies needed to be left to cry. It was at my LLLC Group meeting that I got support to follow my heart, though, and I kept right on carrying my babies.

Babies cry. They cry because it’s the only way they have to let us know that they are unhappy or hurt or scared or lonely.  Or hungry, of course, but crying is considered a late sign of hunger – usually the baby gives other indications first, such as sucking on his hands or fingers, searching for the breast if he’s being held, or breathing quickly and moving around restlessly if he’s not. 

When cows make breastmilk may seem like it belongs in the same category of sayings as “when pigs fly” but it is a step closer to reality due to the work of some Chinese scientists. When this news was released a few months ago I read it, laughed and moved on, but the idea of “humanized cow’s milk” keeps coming back to my mind.

Many years ago, a mother called me for help with her baby who was about 24 hours old and still hadn’t breastfed. She had tried repeatedly – with help from her midwife – to get the baby to latch on, but her little daughter would just turn away, her mouth firmly closed. When I visited her at home, I was equally unsuccessful. 

My Dear Son attended a La Leche League Series Meeting last Thursday evening. But he wasn’t in my arms. I wasn’t even there. He held another woman’s hand as he walked through the door. I didn’t learn that he and his lovely, eight-months-pregnant wife had been there until he mentioned it casually on the phone the next day.

“There were a whole bunch of pregnant women there,” he observed.