Breastfeeding in the Bible

Psalm 8:2 (English-KJV)
Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength because of thine enemies, that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger.

Genesis 49:25 (English-NIV)
Even by the God of thy father, who shall help thee; and by the Almighty, who shall bless thee with blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that lieth under, blessings of the breasts, and of the womb:

I Samuel 1:21-23 (English-NIV)
When the man Elkanah went up with all his family to offer the annual sacrifice to the Lord and to fulfill his vow, Hannah did not go. She said to her husband, "After the boy is weaned, I will take him and present him before the Lord, and he will live there always." "Do what seems best to you," Elkanah her husband told her. "Stay here until you have weaned him; only may the Lord make good his word." So the woman stayed at home and nursed her son until she had weaned him.

Joel 2:15-16 (English-NIV)
Blow the trumpet in Zion, declare a holy fast, call a sacred assembly. Gather the people, consecrate the assembly; bring together the elders, gather the children, those nursing at the breast. Let the bridegroom leave his room and the bride her chamber.

Psalms 22:9 (English-NIV)
Yet you brought me out of the womb; you made me trust in you even at my mother's breast.

1 Thessalonians 2:7 (English-NASB)
But we proved to be gentle among you, as a nursing mother tenderly cares for her own children.

1 Peter 2:1-3 (English-KJV)
Wherefore laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, all evil speakings, As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby: If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious.

Isaiah 66:10-13 (English-NIV)
"Rejoice with Jerusalem and be glad for her, all you who love her; rejoice greatly with her, all you who mourn over her. For you will nurse and be satisfied at her comforting breasts; you will drink deeply and delight in her overflowing abundance." For this is what the LORD says: "I will extend peace to her like a river, and the wealth of nations like a flooding stream; you will nurse and be carried on her arm and dandled on her knees. As a mother comforts her child, so will I comfort you; and you will be comforted over Jerusalem."

Isaiah 60:15,16 (English-NIV)
"Although you have been forsaken and hated, with no one traveling through, I will make you the everlasting pride and the joy of all generations. You will drink the milk of nations and be nursed at royal breasts. Then you will know that I, the LORD, am your Savior, your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.

Isaiah 49:15, 16 (English-KJV)
Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee. Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands; thy walls are continually before me.

Exodus 2:1-10 (English-NIV)
(God wonderfully spared Moses' life, and He made a way for Moses' mother to breastfeed him. They were able to share that special time together before Moses had to go live with Pharaoh's daughter.)

Now a man of the house of Levi married a Levite woman, and she became pregnant and gave birth to a son. When she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him for three months. But when she could hide him no longer, she got a papyrus basket for him and coated it with tar and pitch. Then she placed the child in it and put it among the reeds along the bank of the Nile. His sister stood at a distance to see what would happen to him. Then Pharaoh's daughter went down to the Nile to bathe, and her attendants were walking along the river bank. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her slave girl to get it. She opened it and saw the baby. He was crying, and she felt sorry for him. "This is one of the Hebrew babies," she said. Then his sister asked Pharaoh's daughter, "Shall I go and get one of the Hebrew women to nurse the baby for you?" "Yes, go," she answered. And the girl went and got the baby's mother. Pharaoh's daughter said to her, "Take this baby and nurse him for me, and I will pay you." So the woman took the baby and nursed him. When the child grew older, she took him to Pharaoh's daughter and he became her son. She named him Moses, saying, "I drew him out of the water."

Luke 11:27, 28 (NASB)
(It's kind of interesting to note that apparently breastfeeding was not a topic about which one needed to keep quiet. The lady in this passage raised her voice in the crowd!)

While Jesus was saying these things, one of the women in the crowd raised her voice and said to Him, "Blessed is the womb that bore You and the breasts at which You nursed." But He said, "On the contrary, blessed are those who hear the word of God and observe it."

Support Aamir Raza!

http://www.supportaamirraza.org/Default.htm

This website was created to support Syed Aamir Raza Hussain in his quest to be accepted as a permanent resident in Canada. After denouncing the marketing practices of Nestlé Milkpak Ltd in Pakistan, Aamir received several threats and he is no longer safe in his country. Such marketing practices violate the International Code of Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes, as they undermine breastfeeding. The Code has been endorsed by Canada as well as by over 160 countries at the World Health Assembly. UNICEF has stated: "Marketing practices that undermine breastfeeding are potentially hazardous wherever they are pursued: in the developing world, WHO estimates that some 1.5 million children die each year because they are not adequately breastfed. These facts are not in dispute."

Aamir came to Canada in 2000 and applied for refugee status soon after his arrival. His application was rejected in 2001. He has now been in Canada for four years and has been trying to obtain permanent resident status for the past three. He has not seen his wife and two children (now 6 and 10) since he left Pakistan.

He was unable to attend the funeral of his mother (Sept 2003) nor of his father (Dec 2003). Since the first year of his arrival in Canada, Aamir has been working nearly 60 hours a week to meet his needs and those of his family. Several prominent groups and experts in infant health across the country have told Minister of Citizenship and Immigration Judy Sgro, and her department, that the case of Aamir clearly deserves our full support. If he is sent back to Pakistan, he and his family will be punished for his courage and honesty in defending the interests of mothers and children, and this in keeping with the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Because he is a Shiite, further persecution could ensue. Increased public support for Aamir could help resolve his case with Citizenship and Immigration Canada. Please sign the petition (letter) to the Honorable Judy Sgro, Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, in support of Aamir. A copy will be sent to Citizenship and Immigration.

Blogger's note: If you want to see a heart-wrenching picture of what bottle feeding does to babies in developing countries, I encourage you to visit this website and click on "Aamir's Story"...

How Breastfeeding is Undermined

1. Promotion using free supplies

2. Inappropriate language

3. Using "humanitarian aid" to create markets

4. Labels which undermine breastfeeding

5. Promotion to mothers and pregnant women

6. Promotion to health professionals

7. Undermining implementation of the International Code

For more information, please see http://www.ibfan.org/english/issue/bfundermined01.html

Nestle makes PR blunder in Ethiopia

Infant formula milk push

The whole Nestle mess has two main roots. The first is its aggressive promotion of infant formula milk in developing countries, like Ethiopia, at the expense of breast milk. This has been in defiance of the World Health Organization (WHO) which advocates exclusive breastfeeding for the first four to six months if possible and which, in 1981, passed an International Code of Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes to protect against unscrupulous encouragement to bottlefeed.

Milk substitutes need to be made up with water. So, wherever there is water of dubious quality — abundant in third world countries where poor hygiene and poor water supply are common — there are huge risks of introducing virulent water-borne diseases to babies from bottled formula milk.

Dr Raj Anand, trained in medical college in Britain and now one of India's top pediatricians, says babies fed on infant formula are 14 times more likely to die from diarrhoea than those who are breastfed. He has waged a decades-long campaign against Nestle for paying incentives to Indian general practitioners to recommend Nestle baby milk powder to new or expectant mothers rather than breast milk.

Around the world, the case against Nestle since 1979 is that the company has systematically and cynically undermined the WHO's and many other organizations' promotion of breastfeeding. Nestle was sending — and in some countries still does — its salesmen into maternity units in poor countries dressed in white doctors' lab coats to give a false impression of authority. They were handing out gift packs of bottles and milk powder to new mothers, thereby undermining their commitment to breastfeeding.

"When newborn babies are given a bottle, they are less able to suckle well," said James Grant, executive officer of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF). "This makes breastfeeding failure likely, and the baby is then dependent on artificial milk.

"When the mother and baby leave hospital the milk is no longer free. At home parents are forced to buy more Nestle or other formula milk, which can cost 50% of the family income. Because the milk is so expensive the child is not fed enough and malnutrition and associated diseases set in. Contaminated water mixed with the formula leads to diarrhoea, malnutrition and death."

UNICEF estimates 1.5 million babies will die this year from unsafe bottle feeding. "Every day some 3,000 to 4,000 infants die because they are denied access to adequate breast milk," said Grant.

From an article by Fred Brigland in Japan Today (24 Dec 2002)