There are several occasions that we have talked about the possible relationship between breast milk and the development of babies, because there are several studies that have been done in this regard that show that, when a baby does not drink breast milk its development is slightly affected.
To these investigations is added one carried out in Brazil, whose results have been published recently, in which they have analyzed infants who were breastfed, seeing that there is a relationship that seems consistent between breastfeeding more than 12 months, the level of intelligence and income. Come on, they saw that 30-year-old adults who didn't drink breast milk for more than a year have a lower level of intelligence and a lower salary.
How did they do the study
In 1982, a sample of 5,914 newborns from families living in the urban area of the city of Pelotas, in Brazil, was taken. After the birth, their mothers were interviewed and spoke with them again in 1984 and 1986, when 4,979 children of the initials were contacted.
In June 2012 and until February 2013, "children", and adults, were invited to visit a research clinic where they were interviewed and examined by researchers who didn't know how they had been fed small.
It was in 1984 when mothers were asked about the duration of breastfeeding and the age at which they had started complementary feeding. The age of exclusive breastfeeding was assessed, but it was not analyzed because at that time it was not a common practice. Children who had not been breastfed and those who had received breast milk less than a month were classified within the same group. The intelligence of the subjects was evaluated by means of an intelligence test, the level of studies of each participant was noted and they were asked to say how much they had charged the previous month in their respective works.
To have the most reliable results possible, they took into account several confounding variables: the monthly income of the family, the level of maternal education, maternal smoking during pregnancy, maternal age, the body mass index before pregnancy, the type of delivery (cesarean or vaginal), gestational age and the weight of the baby at birth. In the 1984 and 1986 visits they added new confounding factors: parental education, the purchasing power of each family and genomic ancestry (to assess the ancestry of each child to differentiate them if they came from Europeans, African-Americans, Mexican-Americans, indigenous people, ...)
What were the results of the study?
In 2012 and 2013 they managed to interview 3,493 participants. Both in the first data analyzes, and once all the confounding variables were crossed, it was observed that The duration of total breastfeeding and breastfeeding as a predominant food is positively associated with the IQ, educational achievements and income level. In fact, they saw that there was a dose-response association in terms of intellectual quotient and level of education (the longer they were breastfed, the better results in the intelligence tests and the more studies the individuals had).
In definitive data, participants who were breastfed 12 months or more had an IQ score of 3.76 higher average points, plus years of education (0.91 years on average) and charged an average of 341 brazilian reals (98 euros) more per month, than those who did not receive breast milk or who did so for less than a month.
In the following graph you can see how the more months of breastfeeding, the greater the intellectual quotient. The triangles, squares and rhombuses are the level of family income and, as you can see, they have a lot to do with the intellectual quotient of a person (more important even than breastfeeding). Seeing the progression, it is observed that breastfeeding has a positive effect on all social strata.
What does this mean?
If you have Facebook and have friends or children with children, they may have already linked to an article that says breastfeeding makes children smarter and charges more money. Perhaps, you have even reached someone with a headline as absurd as "Breastfeeding makes babies richer and smarter" (absurd, because for my taste it is treated in a very superficial way ... a breastfed baby does not have to be intelligent, although it will be a little more than if it had not been breastfed).
The study says that children who drink breast milk more than 12 months have a higher IQ compared to those who do not drink it. We live in a time when it is usual that this does not happen, that is, most children do not get to drink tit for 12 months. That is why we talk about breastfeeding for more than a year as the differential element, which happens rarely. However, the normal, the logical, what has happened throughout life, for centuries and millennia is precisely that. The children have always suckled for more than 12 months, so by then no one wondered how smart their child would be with breast milk. It was done because it was normal, what had to be done so that the child was fed and survived. No more no less.
So giving a baby breast milk today for more than 12 months is still normal, what a baby would have to receive for the fact of being human: I am a human baby, I drink human milk. By this I mean that it's not that those who drink breast milk are smarter, it's those who do not take it have a lower average IQ.
It seems that I say the same, but it is not so, it is very different. The legend runs that many famous pregnant women give birth by caesarean section to their babies in the 37th week of pregnancy, to avoid the last month of weight gain and recover the figure before. Let's say this extends and most women begin to give birth that week, that doctors begin to say that it is better, that women feel free of weight and a few weeks of gestation that they end up seeing as "leftovers." The normal, the usual, will be to give birth then, in week 37. Years will pass, perhaps decades, to the point that giving birth in week 40 is something that grandmothers did, or those that had no money and they went to public health gynecologists, who dared not do caesarean sections early, or women who gave birth at home, very natural and outdated.
But there will be people who wonder why, to do research, and there will be some who come to show that for the baby it is better to be born in week 40. These studies will appear and the media will say "babies born in week 40 are smarter "and a whole legion of women who gave birth in 37 because they were told it was better, because they chose it that way or because they had problems in childbirth they will complain. That if "you make us feel bad", that "I am to blame for my baby not wanting to be in my womb until week 40", that "now I will not stop thinking that my child will have some delay", etc. But all that obviously will not prove them right, because it will be shown that in terms of development it is better for a baby to grow inside the uterus than to grow outside the uterus.
But we all know that it is better to grow inside the uterus
I know. That will not happen because we all know it. That is why when a baby is premature and there are contractions they do the possible and the impossible because it is not yet born. Outside the uterus, if it is very premature, it could die and inside, survive. It is always better inside than outside.
And what does this have to do with breastfeeding? Well, everything. The uterus is the development of the baby inside the same as breast milk outside. The incubator and the kangaroo method would be artificial feeding. Can't you give what is best for the baby? Well, we give you the best we have, even though We know it is not the same.
The uterus has a mission that lasts 9 months. At 9 months he expels the baby outside because, although he would gladly continue to develop it inside, and surely this would be very positive for the baby, the mother's life would be in danger, for not being able to give birth. Then the baby is born and the uterus and placenta pass the control to the mammary glands: "follow you, that here we can do nothing more for him", and at the moment when the placenta comes out a series of hormonal changes occur that start to segregate colostrum and ripen the milk, full of immunoglobulins and hundreds of components, so that the baby continues to be nourished as if it were receiving maternal cells through the cord, but through the mouth. Maternal cells? Of course, that's human milk, a liquid tissue composed of mother's cells, to help the baby develop.
It is logical, of drawer, as it is said in Spain, to think that if we break the act of breastfeeding the development will not be the same, it will not be normal, it will not be the one that should have been in normal conditions, just as if Pregnancy breaks early. Babies may have more health and developmental problems than full-term babies.
Now we just need to understand this all at once, fathers, mothers, grandparents, grandmothers, in-laws, mothers-in-law, neighbors and neighbors so that women who breastfeed are protected from any criticism, comment or look. And let it be known by midwives, doctors, pediatricians, nurses and anyone who cares for these mothers so that, in case they have problems, they can receive the help they deserve and the help their babies need. Is it true that when a pregnant woman is at risk of preterm birth, she is helped so that the baby takes longer to be born? Is it true that there are no gynecologists who say "well, we get it from you", from good to first? In the same way, all professionals should be extinguished and in case a woman has problems they say "well, give her a bottle".
What if you can't? I am also one of those affected
If you can't, then you can't. I am also one of those affected. My mother gave me breastfeeding for three months. Then bottle. It probably gave me the same as most people of my generation, so my brain development (our brain development) was not the same as it would have been if they had breastfed me longer. What I do? Well, nothing, I can do nothing, as nothing can do women who fail to breastfeed and end up giving a bottle because if not the life of their babies is in danger and as nothing can women who have a premature baby.
All I can do is what I do: accept it, assume it, internalize it and communicate it to continue fighting for what Mothers who want to breastfeed their babies for 12 months or more can do so. And, obviously, to add that the intellectual quotient of a baby, of a person, has a lot to do with many other things, as you have seen in the graph above. Breast milk makes a difference, but it greatly affects the education of the parents and the social position they occupy, in addition to the environment in which the child lives, the love and respect you receive and the love you breathe at home.
