Breastfeeding and Communication

photo credit: christyscherrer

It seems that breastfeeding is an important part of communication. The delicate dance between mother and child as they work together to breastfeed plays a part in how a child later communicates with others.

When most mammal infants eat, they latch on and drink until they are full. Alternatively, human infants can get distracted, want to play, and often stop for attention from mom. According to Psychologist Kenneth Kaye, this is actually part of the early communication that happened between mother and child. The “conversation” that happens as a mother responds to a child that has stopped to play is important business. It has a rhythm, a give and take, an ebb and flow that develops into the patterns of verbal communication later on.

Much like when other primates groom each other, the basic communication is as much about exchanging information as it is about greeting and creating a bond. We know the roles to follow, when to speak and when to listen. Like when a mother gently rocks her infant who has stopped eating, we learn to step in the pace of give and take that conversation takes. And, like any good conversation, it takes both people to fully get it right. MOther and baby have to work together to create the rhythm of breastfeeding.

So if suckling is primitive conversation, then dance is conversation in its most sophisticated form. I don’t mean art-dance; I mean the dance we do when we are with friends and there is music. In our shared living space, or in the night club, we joyfully reenact the most basic fact there is about us: that we are from the beginning — from the moment of our first meal with mother — part of something bigger than ourselves alone; we are part of something that requires of us that we lock in, hold on, pay attention to the other, to the music, and at the same time, let go.

It is absolutely beautiful to think about. That from our first moments at the breast, we are learning how to be a part of this dance. This communication ritual that connects us all as human beings. Each sway, soothing sound, and moment of the two working together will teach the infant how to be a part of the rest of the human world.

And you thought it was just milk.

(article source)

Tags: breastfeeding, communication

Summer is a freelance writer and mother of 3, searching for herself amongst the Legos and blocks. After moving a couple hundred miles away from home, and fighting a few dragons, she's figuring out that she needs to be her own biggest fan to get through the world.


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