By Penelope A. Domogo, MD
Today is Mothers’ Day. Happy Mothers’ Day to all women of the world, especially to my daughter who just gave birth to their first child, a robust beautiful baby boy.
It’s amazing how the Creator of the Universe designed the propagation and survival of His creatures. For some plants, He designed seeds that get scattered by the wind or the birds or by wild animals or by people. For other plants, He designed that they creep in the soil and develop tubers or that they be propagated by cuttings. For some flowering plants like squash, he designed male and female flowers so that we need the bees and the butterflies to mix the pollens of these male and female flowers so that the fruit is viable. Some flowers, though, like the lily and the rose, are bisexual. For bacteria and viruses, they are more self-reliant. They multiply by just dividing themselves – in about 20 to 30 minutes they are two then these 2 will become 4 and so on. So in a few hours, one bacteria can become a million. Wow, money can also grow that fast. I wish.
For mammals like humans, the Creator made a more complicated design. He designed that to produce an offspring, a male and a female need to mate and the female to get pregnant. Sorry, ladies and gentlemen, we are not self-sufficient when it comes to reproduction. We still need each other. Even with artificial insemination, we still need the male and female body. But only the female can get pregnant because it is only women who have uterus. Sorry guys.
For all creation, even the fast-multiplying bacteria, there is an incubation period before reproduction. Well, I guess nature needs time to assemble the diverse parts to create the whole. For humans, the incubation period is nine months which we call “pregnancy”. Once a woman is pregnant, she has already become a mother as the baby inside the womb is totally dependent on her for survival and development. At this time of pregnancy, the cells of the baby grow a billion times and thus the importance for the pregnant woman to eat well and be happy. The mother’s food provide the building blocks for the baby so it is important to provide nature’s building blocks (these are natural, whole foods), not building blocks from the factory. What do you think will be created out of those meat and vegetables and fruits that are loaded with toxic chemicals? What about those highly-processed foods laden with artificial seasonings and colorings and flavorings? It is not surprising, therefore, why there are more inborn abnormalities in children now compared to 50 or 100 years ago.
A stable emotional state is also desirable for pregnant and nursing mothers. In the indigenous Igorot culture, the pregnant or nursing woman should avoid crying and being emotionally upset, she should avoid going to wakes and other occasions with negative energy, because her emotions also impact on the baby in the womb and the baby she is breastfeeding. It is imperative, therefore, for the husband and family and community members to support the woman as she goes through her pregnancy and later, childbirth and child-rearing. Where the husband is not present, then the other members of the family and community will have to pitch in and support, not upset, the mother. It really takes a village to rear a child.
At the appropriate time, dictated again by nature, this offspring is “separated” from the mother at birth. And for the offspring to survive after birth, He designed the breast as the milk factory and the nipple where the offspring will suckle. For the rats and the pigs, He designed that they can have as many as 12 sons and daughters at a time. Rats have 12 nipples so theoretically, they can have 12 babies at a time. Pigs also have 12 to 14 nipples but some report up to 32 teats! Well, we, humans, have only two nipples so, theoretically, mothers can nurse two babies at a time. This is why there are twins, not triplets. Wonderful Creator! He provided for everything.
Breast milk production and breastfeeding are not simple phenomena. For a mother to be able to breastfeed, she needs to have breast milk. In general, for her to produce breast milk, she needs to get pregnant. Meaning, the mammalian body is designed (by the Creator, who else?) such that once it gets pregnant, milk production starts. It’s not like mixing powdered milk with water and presto, you have milk. No, no.
At about the second month of pregnancy, the breast enlarges as the milk ducts grow automatically. Thus breast enlargement is one of the early signs whereby we know somebody is pregnant, even if she is not sure of it or denies it. During the last few months of pregnancy, milk would begin to leak so by the time the baby is born, milk is already available. I am happy for my daughters because they were able to breastfeed as soon as their babies were born and their breast milk is enough.
It is amazing how the newborn baby automatically seeks the nipple just after birth. What is more amazing is that when the nipple is suckled, the uterus contracts. This is very important just after birth as it prevents hemorrhage. See how nature designed that we survive.
Now, why do we have mothers who don’t have breastmilk or whose breastmilk is not enough? Again, it is a matter of equation. The quality of what you take in is the quality of what gets out. Good food in, good food out. Garbage in, garbage out. Junk food in, junk food out. Now, nature does not like junk food for your baby, thank God! Your breasts will need good raw materials to produce good milk in enough quantity. These raw materials are provided for in nature and what is good for you, as the mother, is also good for the baby. The more natural the food, the better. As experimented by our forebears across the globe, legumes are good for milk production. And, of course, a lot of soup (“sabaw”). Milk is liquid and so your body will not be able to produce enough good milk if all you eat during pregnancy is fried foods and other dehydrated foods like bread and cookies and instant noodles. And would nature like the toxins in the hotdog and corned beef to go to your baby? No, our Creator designed that we survive.
Pregnancy and childbirth are normal, natural occurrences. A province-wide community survey we did in Mountain Province in the early 1990’s revealed that some mothers were strong and brave enough to choose to deliver by themselves. After delivery, they would deliver the placenta then put on their “bakget” (wide belt) and clean and nurse the baby. There were no hospitals then and the home was the birthing place. For the majority of mothers, though, they were assisted in childbirth by the husband, mother, father, mother-in-law, father-in-law, neighbors, etc. And they were fine. No big fuss. No additional expense. Communities flourished. Now, many women cannot deliver normally. They have lost confidence to deliver at home as they are pushed to deliver in a health facility where there’s much expense (if it is free, somebody, like the tax payer, paid for it). Self-delivery is a rare occurrence. Some mothers die from post-partum hemorrhage or from effects of unhealthy conditions like high blood pressure.
A lot of studies here and abroad show that our changed lifestyle is the culprit for these diseased conditions. Just a reflection of how life in the Cordillera has changed is enough to teach us where we went wrong, if only we are humble enough to accept our human limitations. We have become so arrogant as to believe that we can be independent from nature and its design. We have come to believe so much in our human capacity, thinking that our “science”, our gadgets and technologies can replace nature. Thank God for motherhood, because it brings us back to nature. Pregnancy and birthing is still a turf of women. Babies are still babies who need Mom’s milk (not mama cow, mind you). So to all the women who are mothers or who want to become mothers, making sure you are healthy even before you get pregnant is the best foundation for your baby’s health. Congratulations, Adamey and Roldan and to all new parents out there!***
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“Do not conform yourselves to the standards of this world, but let God transform you inwardly by a complete change of your mind. Then you will be able to know the will of God – what is good and is pleasing to him and is perfect.” Romans 12:2
