To the
members of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences
between mother and child
12 May 1995
On Friday, 12 May, the Holy Father met the
participants in a study session on breast-feeding, science and society
organized by the Pontifical Academy of Sciences and The Royal Society [of Great
Britain]. In addition to the immunological and nutritional benefits of
breast-feeding, the Pope said, "this natural way of feeding can create a
bond of love and security between mother and child, and enable the child to
assert its presence as a person through interaction with the mother". Here
is the text of the Holy Father's talk, which was given in English.
Your Eminences,
Your Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
1. As always, it is a great pleasure to
meet the distinguished participants in the study sessions organized by the
Pontifical Academy of Science, and I thank Bishop James McHugh for his kind
words of introduction. Today I am especially happy to extend my appreciation to
The Royal Society, which has co-sponsored this significant meeting.
True to its purpose and statutes, the
Pontifical Academy of Sciences addresses itself to a wide range of scientific,
social and ethical issues which have a bearing on the Church's service to the
human family, a service which springs from the fundamental Gospel commandment
of love. The Academy plays a resourceful role in helping the Church, in
particular the Holy See, to fulfil this task of
service with the benefit of the most expert scientific knowledge and insights.
Your studies and enquiries contribute to the Church's supreme effort to journey
hand in hand with humanity on its path through temporal realities towards man's
great and inexorable transcendent destiny.
2. On this occasion you have been invited
to share your expertise on the specific subject of: "Breast-feeding:
science and society", as a part of the overall study which the Academy is
pursuing since 1990 on Population and Resources. As scientists you direct your
enquiry towards a better understanding of the advantages of breast-feeding for
the infant and for the mother. As your Working Group can confirm, in normal
circumstances these include two major benefits to the child: protection against
disease and proper nourishment. Moreover, in addition to these immunological
and nutritional effects, this natural way of feeding can create a bond
of love and security between mother and child, and enable the child to assert
its presence as a person through the interaction with the mother.
All of this
is obviously a matter of immediate concern to countless women and children, and
something which clearly has general importance for every society, rich or poor.
One hopes that your studies will serve to heighten public awareness of how much
this natural activity benefits the child and helps to create the closeness and
maternal bonding so necessary for healthy child development. So human and
natural is this bond that the Psalms use the image of the infant at its
mother’s breast as a picture of God’s care for man (cf. Ps 22:9). So vital is
this interaction between mother and child that my predecessor Pope Pius XII
urged Catholic mothers, if at all possible, to nourish their children
themselves (cf. Allocution to Mothers, 26 October 1941). From various perspectives
therefore the theme is of interest to the Church, called as she is to concern
herself with the sanctity of life and of the family.
3. Worldwide surveys indicate
that two-thirds of mothers still breast-feed, at least to some extent. But
statistics also show that there has been a fall in the number of women who
nourish their infants in this way, not only in developed countries where the
practice almost has to be reinstituted, but also increasingly in developing
countries. This decline is traced to a combination of social factors such as
urbanization and the increasing demands placed on women, to healthcare policies
and practices, and to marketing strategies for alternate forms of nourishment.
Yet the
overwhelming body of research is in favor of natural feeding rather than its
substitutes. Responsible international agencies are calling on governments to
ensure that women are enabled to breast-feed their children for four to six
months from birth and to continue this practice, supplemented by other appropriate
foods, up to the second year of life or beyond (cf. UNICEF, Children and
Development in the 1990s, on the occasion of the World Summit for Children, New
York, 29-30 September, 1990). Your meeting therefore intends to illustrate the
scientific bases for encouraging social policies and employment conditions
which allow mothers to do this.
In
practical terms, what we are saying is that mothers need time, information and
support. So much is expected of women in many societies that time to devote to
breast-feeding and early care is not always available. Unlike other modes of
feeding, no one can substitute for the mother in this natural activity.
Likewise, women have a right to be informed truthfully about the advantages of
this practice, as also about the difficulties involved in some cases.
Healthcare professionals, too, should be encouraged and properly trained to
help women in these matters.
4. In the recent encyclical Evangelium Vitae, I wrote that: "A family policy must
be the basis and driving force of all social policies.... It is also necessary
to rethink labor, urban, residential and social service policies so as to
harmonize working schedules with time available for the family, so that it
becomes effectively possible to take care of children and the elderly"
(No. 90).
Is this
a vague utopia, or is it the obligatory path to the genuine well-being of
society? Even this brief reflection on the very individual and private act of a
mother feeding her infant can lead us to a deep and far-ranging critical
rethinking of certain social and economic presuppositions, the negative human
and moral consequences of which are becoming more and more difficult to ignore.
Certainly, a radical re-examination of many aspects of prevailing
socio-economic patterns of work, economic competitiveness and lack of attention
to the needs of the family is urgently necessary.
5. I am therefore very grateful to all of
you for offering your time and co-operation to this meeting co-sponsored by the
Pontifical Academy of Sciences and The Royal Society. I look forward to the
synthesis and report of your findings so that this information may be widely
circulated to our Church agencies and interested institutions throughout the
world. I pray for the success of your research and for your own personal
well-being. May God's blessings of strength, joy and peace be with each one of
you and the members of your families.
The following is taken from Pope Pius XII’s address to the Women of Italian Catholic Action, a
group of midwives, October 26, 1941.
Mothers, your sensibility is greater and your
love more tender. Therefore, you will keep a vigilant eye upon your babies
throughout their infancy, watching over their growth and over the health of
their little bodies, for this is flesh of your flesh and the fruit of your
womb.
Remember that your children are the adopted
sons of God and especially beloved of Christ. Remember that their angels look
forever on the face of the heavenly Father; and so you too, as you rear them,
must be angels in a like manner, in all your care and vigilance keeping your
eyes fixed upon heavenly. It is your task form the cradle to begin their
education in soul as well as in body; for if you do not educate them they will
begin, for good or ill, to educate themselves.
Many of the moral characteristics which you see
in the youth or the man owe their origin to the manner and circumstances of his
first upbringing in infancy. Purely organic habits contracted at that time may
later prove a serious obstacle to the spiritual life of the soul. And so you
will make it your special care in the treatment of your child to observe the
prescriptions of a perfect hygiene, so that when it comes to the use of reason
its bodily organs and faculties will be healthy and robust and free from
distorted tendencies.
This is the reason why, except where quite
impossible, it is more desirable that the mother should feed her child at her
own breast. Who shall say what mysterious influences are exerted upon the
growth of that little creature by the mother upon whom it depends entirely for
its development.