Opinion | Breast feeding and psychological stress

Breast milk also known as “white blood “by physician Ibn Sena represents the bond, dependence, right, love, care, protection, reward and every strong beautiful word of our vocabulary between a mother and her child, that enables a child to grow healthy and strong laying the foundation of a beautiful society.
The importance of breastfeeding can also be understood by the fact that during Ramadhan, if a nursing mother has concerns about harming herself or her infant by fasting, she is allowed to delay fasting to another time. Our dear prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) himself was wet nursed for at least 2 years.so for any Muslim on this planet this example should be enough to know and understand the importance and role of breastfeeding.
Here we need to highlight a very important aspect “the father’s responsibility”. Irrespective of popular belief that breastfeeding is only mothers’ job, the fact remains that infant’s father has an obligation to support his wife through any circumstance that may affect breastfeeding and in case of divorce, provide shelter and financial support to the mother-infant dyad for as long as breastfeeding continues (verses2:233 and 65:6). Hence the importance of father to stay besides his wife during the course cannot be ignored. In case father and mother mutually consent to let a wet nurse feed a child, the father is obliged to financially support and treat the wet nurse well to ensure his child’s good nutrition (verse 2:233)Please understand that Islam places equal responsibility for the success of breastfeeding on both parents.
So, the promotion of breastfeeding programs among Muslims should be based on religious recommendations, and should be conveyed to parents and family members in particular to ensure better understanding and cooperation during this critical phase.
It is very necessary to understand that cultural practices don’t and may not always represent religious beliefs.
During this modern era of easy availability of knowledge and for those who seek it, it is not difficult to understand, the importance of segregation between cultural beliefs and religious recommendations.
A nursing mother, especially the first-time mother is exposed to all kinds of stress, psychological, physical, acute. she suffers from disbalanced hormones, tired and torn body. We should never push her to take responsibility alone. If we cannot support her, we need to be gentle at least. Remember she is not responsible for sun rising in the east or setting in the west. So, we need to stop blaming her for things which are beyond her control.
Next time when we are near a new mom, keep in mind that psychological distress affects multiple outcomes of breast feeding, including delayed secretory activation and decreased duration of exclusive breastfeeding. Various researches suggest, maternal psychological distress (e.g. perceived stress, anxiety, depression) is linked with lactation difficulty and breast-feeding cessation.
This beautiful phase is strongly and deeply dependent on orchestration of cooperation between husband and wife and a positive role of family members from both sides.
(This article is dedicated to all the nursing mothers).
Dr Tahseen Gani(drtahseengani@gmail.com.)