The cultural, economic and political forces, which carve the biological visage of lactation and welfare of children, affect the traditional practice of breast-feeding. For example, at the beginning of the last century, nearly 90 percent of American women breast-fed their children. Within the next fifty years, this figure declined to a low 12 percent. The phenomenal decrease in breast-feeding was responsible, among other forces, for a surge in infant mortality. The problem was significant enough to alarm public health officials into proceeding with campaigns to motivate women to breast-feed and rebuking those who did no. In 1842, when the Malthusian theory was in vogue, a French doctor proposed that the state should make it obligatory for all women to suckle their children for three years.
On the other hand, it is now commonly believed that Western women are physiologically unqualified to provide adequate milk for their growing children. Based to this assumption, it has become a fad in Western countries to renounce breast-feeding and trap the infant[ and the mother] with the bottle, for lactation, among other things, has been banished as an irrelevant constituent of childbearing.
Ironically, influenced by the aggressive advertising of Western pharmaceutical companies, many African and Asian women are seeking refuse in the use of human milk substitutes- such as baby formula- at the cost of their own health and the well-being of their children. Let the simple fact be remembered that the chemical composition and proportion of over one hundred constituents of human milk are noticeably different from those of the milk of other mammals. Compared to cow’s milk, it contains higher amounts of copper and vitamin C and E. Moreover, calcium absorption and the functioning of the metabolism is more efficient in the presence of human milk. The hostile diet, which is what the mother’s milk is for the infant, with its in-built immunological safeguards, cannot be supplanted by any synthetic body food or human milk substitutes.
Diametrically opposed to the Western antagonism towards the lactating mother is the Musl;im predilection for breast-feeding.
The Qur’an states:-
“And the [divorced] mother’s may nurse their children for two whole years, if they wish to complete the period of nursing ; and it is incumbent upon him who has begotten the child to provide in a fair manner for their sustenance and clothing. No human being shall be burdened with more than he is well able to bear: neither shall a mother be made to suffer because of her child, nor because of his child, he who has begotten it. And the same duty rests upon the [father’s].” Surah al- Baqarah 2:233
So, from the biological study in the perspective of the Holy Qur’an, we can see that the twenty-first century science is creditably marching ahead in the direction towards which Al-Qur’an invites our attention. Al-Qur’an though revealed 1400 years ago, told us about a lot of scientific goals and achievements, which world scientists of much later dates, say thousand of years after, could not even think about.
Let us hope that world scientists will study the Holy Qur’an and discover from it many more keys for unfolding many more secrets of nature and shower unlimited blessings upon us. Ameen.
On the other hand, it is now commonly believed that Western women are physiologically unqualified to provide adequate milk for their growing children. Based to this assumption, it has become a fad in Western countries to renounce breast-feeding and trap the infant[ and the mother] with the bottle, for lactation, among other things, has been banished as an irrelevant constituent of childbearing.
Ironically, influenced by the aggressive advertising of Western pharmaceutical companies, many African and Asian women are seeking refuse in the use of human milk substitutes- such as baby formula- at the cost of their own health and the well-being of their children. Let the simple fact be remembered that the chemical composition and proportion of over one hundred constituents of human milk are noticeably different from those of the milk of other mammals. Compared to cow’s milk, it contains higher amounts of copper and vitamin C and E. Moreover, calcium absorption and the functioning of the metabolism is more efficient in the presence of human milk. The hostile diet, which is what the mother’s milk is for the infant, with its in-built immunological safeguards, cannot be supplanted by any synthetic body food or human milk substitutes.
Diametrically opposed to the Western antagonism towards the lactating mother is the Musl;im predilection for breast-feeding.
The Qur’an states:-
“And the [divorced] mother’s may nurse their children for two whole years, if they wish to complete the period of nursing ; and it is incumbent upon him who has begotten the child to provide in a fair manner for their sustenance and clothing. No human being shall be burdened with more than he is well able to bear: neither shall a mother be made to suffer because of her child, nor because of his child, he who has begotten it. And the same duty rests upon the [father’s].” Surah al- Baqarah 2:233
So, from the biological study in the perspective of the Holy Qur’an, we can see that the twenty-first century science is creditably marching ahead in the direction towards which Al-Qur’an invites our attention. Al-Qur’an though revealed 1400 years ago, told us about a lot of scientific goals and achievements, which world scientists of much later dates, say thousand of years after, could not even think about.
Let us hope that world scientists will study the Holy Qur’an and discover from it many more keys for unfolding many more secrets of nature and shower unlimited blessings upon us. Ameen.
