I've been reflecting lately on the words of Isaiah, "can a woman forget her nursing child, or show no compassion for the child of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you" (49:15). For some reason, it's just striking me as really *cool* how God built into the biology of our bodies ways for us to learn more about His nature!
Not that I didn't understand, at least intellectually, before I had my daughter - I could imagine what motherly feelings would be, extrapolate from other experiences in my life, and put a rough picture together. But now, understanding occurs on a visceral level, as lovely oxytocin pumps through my blood in response to my little nursling. It's just amazing how God chose to create a chemical in our bodies to help us understand in some small way the depth of His love and commitment. He could have created just a spiritual understanding of commitment in us, and that would have been great, but instead He chose to make it also a very physical part of our nature, so that we literally, chemically, *bond* to those that we love. And yet, as He points out, how weak is that chemical bond (even though one of the strongest things we ever experience) compared to His love for us!
Anyway, just a thought on a quiet tuesday :) And if this thought strikes you as cool, too, and you, like me, would like to ponder such things more - check out Breastfeeding and Catholic Motherhood (Sheila Kippley), and/or The Evidential Power of Beauty (Fr. Thomas Dubay). I'm not reading either at the moment, but have read both so many times that they have really shaped my thinking, and my aforementioned thought fits right into the philosophy of both.
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The more I've read about lactation in the past couple of years, the more I bow my head in awe at the marvels of God's creation. At the most basic biochemical level babies are more related to a mother who breastfeeds them than they would be to a mother who didn't. The hormones associated with lactation absolutely "do" something for a nursing mother than doesn't happen for the mom who chooses not to nurse. It's not politically correct to say that these days, but it's a biological fact, none-the-less. And yet, God loves us more than we love our nursing babies, more than we love the children of our womb. The verse that struck me is "As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you." When we think about the incredibly love within the Trinity and then realize that God has poured that same love out on us, despite the fact we don't deserve it. Well I have to bow my head in awe at that too.
Yes, although I didn't mean to imply that non-nursing moms don't equally bond with their babies - just through different means; nursing is a powerful, in-built, biological tool, but God fortunately built in other things that also release bonding hormone. I focus on the nursing bond because it's what I know... but of course we also bond with adopted babies, our spouses, non-biological family and friends, etc. I just think it's really cool how our love is physical, on a biochemical level, as well as emotional and spiritual!
I can't breast feed and I still get the oxytocin dumps when I hold my children near my bosom. And if they nuzzle me then it's even more oxytocin lol!
There's a huge push for breastfeeding and I was so worried that I wouldn't bond as powerfully to my babies. But that turned out to be of no concern.
When I was in the hospital for two weeks while waiting for the twins to be born I would waddle the halls in the wee hours of the morning. They had all of these "Breast is best!" posters everywhere. They had lists and blurbs, pictures and diagrams ~ and every single one of them made it sound as if you were awful (and your baby was in danger!) if you didn't breast feed.
There wasn't one single poster for women like me that can't (or don't want to?) breast feed. Nothing that said, "By the way, you're not a monster if you bottle feed!" I pointed this out to the nurses and midwives and we had a good laugh. I suggested I could draw one but it would end up done in stick-figures lol
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