Breast Milk as Baby’s Natural Resource

written by: Maria Lioni, CIMSA lokal Universitas Padjajaran

Energy is a basic human need and right, which can be contented in many forms, either served as food or drink.  Ideally, daily energy intake must be equally adequate as the energy expense. Furthermore, type of energy intake such as high fiber, low fat, and low salt diet, has been a common knowledge. If one eats abundance amount of calories daily beyond his physical activities energy, he automatically puts himself in an increased risk of having obesity and dislipidemia. If a normal capable man consumes junk food in his whole adult life, he puts himself in a huge risk of developing cardiovascular diseases. That is the nature, regardless he has the knowledge about junk food consequences or not. One could not blame his wife or family for not controlling and reminding him about his diet. The options are always in his hands, even the results are never felt at the moment of eating.

Aside from the importance of energy for living, we essentially have to be protected by immunity system, which consists of innate and acquired immunity. Thank God for incredibly creating sophisticated human immunity system, to defend ourselves from either internal or external hazards. Actually, every time we breathe the air, talk to each other, and use the air conditioner, we always insert a lot of microbes into our lungs. But automatically our immunity system works well to establish a stable and healthy human. Someone who uses non-sterile injected drugs and is finally infected by Human Immunodeficiency Virus, can further become an unfortunate person with Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome. He will profoundly incapable to do standard job and tasks, because the lacking body protection makes him infected by diseases easily. This tropical infectious disease is the most familiar problem related to immunity system. Thus, it encompasses how mediocre one's life could be, if he neglects the significance of constructing maintained healthy immunity.

Therefore, thousands problems can emerge from two simple sources of a human entity, energy and immunity, which both have simultaneous and collaborative effects. Human body's immune system will respond better if it gets adequate energy. Thus, strict monitoring nutrition is crucial in assuring optimal immune system development. Talking about capability to decide what to eat, there is always certain typical difference between first years of baby's life and adult year. The stereotype difference between their nutrition lies in who decides the choices, which is he himself as an adult, and the baby's mother as the main playmaker throughout a child's life. Since a baby comes to earth, she receives milk as her first source of energy, whether it is the formula milk or her mother's breast milk.  Whenever she is hungry and wants to be fed, all she can do is crying. She may not choose her preference, indeed she just the passive player in her first few years. Particularly in some cultural area, such as in a village in Central Java, young mothers are conducted by the older and more experienced mothers about feeding their babies. The tradition being taught is feeding banana as soon as possible to their babies. Based on my personal interview in some villages in Java, they usually breastfeed their babies up to one year of life, but they combine banana and porridge with the milk since their babies are three-month-year old. By doing so, they believe that the babies will grow faster and healthier compared to those who drink only breast milk in the first six months. However, as we scientifically understand, babies should be fed exclusively by her mother breast milk up to six months of age, without any complementary or supplementary foods. This clearly shows how profound mother's role is in her child's dietary since the very beginning of her life. What a mother does to her children, will be reflected in the children's future.

Breastfeeding is a common issue in all corners around the globe. All mothers are obliged to breastfeed their babies, unless there is any conditional state based on doctor's recommendation. Breastfeeding issue has been also broadly propagated since a long time ago, and consisted of two dimensions of perspective. First was the place, which described that wherever a baby became hungry, the mother could breastfeed her baby in any place. The phrase 'any place' actually means comfortable and safe place for both the mother and the baby. Second aspect was the time, which allowed mother to breastfeed her baby regularly, in her own scheduled time, during the first six months exclusive breastfeeding of her baby's life.

Two-dimension-perspective of breastfeeding is essential in order to provide sufficient baby's nutrition. Breast milk has less carbohydrate than formula milk, which eases baby's digestive system to absorb well. It has more fat to construct and enhance cells growth compared to formula milk. It also provides complete immunoglobulin and other immunity proteins that are critical for the first year of a baby's life. From the mother's point of view, breastfeeding is a really healthy step after delivering the baby. By breastfeeding, a mother reduces her risk for developing breast cancer and other cancers. Moreover, economically breast milk is much cheaper and easier than formula milk. Although breastfeeding does not contain any adverse effects, some mothers prefer not to breastfeed their babies, due to her business, or other reasons. Whether a mother wants to breastfeed her baby or not is totally her individual choice. But it is irony if a mother prefers formula milk to breast milk, because of the fact that breast milk can be concluded as the only natural resource providing ideal baby's energy and immunity.