| Breast Feeding: A Neurobiologic Perspective |
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Jan Winberg |
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Department of Woman and Child Health, Karolinska Hospital, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden |
| Breast Feeding: A Neurobiologic Perspective |
|
Jan Winberg |
|
Department of Woman and Child Health, Karolinska Hospital, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden |
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| Abstract |
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Breast-feeding(BF) failures are common in industrialized societies and can only
partly be explained by social, psychologic, culturaland cognitive factors. The more
profound causes remain unknown. This annotation presents clinical observations
suggesting that several nursing care rituals in delivery rooms and maternity wards
interfere with innate behavioural programs and consequently may disturb the
unfolding feeding behaviour. Mother-infant interaction including BF depend on the
activation of acomplex network of neuronal pathways in “the old mammalian brain”,
as well as of certain hormonal systems especially within the neuropeptide family.
Since this organization shows an evolutionary stability one can assume that it has
partly been preserved in the human.
Initiation and promotion of breast-feeding willbenefit if the perinatalcare of
mother and baby supports their innate behavioural agendas. Mothers who fail often
have a low confidence in their ability to breast-feed. The self-confidence is
strengthened when the mother experiences that her baby all by itself can find the
nipple and begin to suck within an hour of delivery. Similarly this early start helps
the baby todevelop an adequate sucking technique. |
| Key Words:
Breast-feeding, Developmental neuro-biology, Lactation, Materna behaviour, Neonatal behaviour |
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