(Image via Reindeer Express)
I recently had a conversation with a french woman who is a gynecologist. She does not deliver babies, but she provides prenatal care through the sixth month (the OB system is organized differently in France than in the US). I asked her, because I have often been curious but never found any real information on the topic, how and if breastfeeding during pregnancy effects either the developing baby or the nursing toddler. Because nursing through a pregnancy is less practiced in the cultures that produce many of the studies on child development there does not seem to be much publicly available information other than anecdote (of which there is a fair amount).
In particular I do not understand the effects of hormonal changes present in the pregnant woman's body being passed on to the toddler through the milk. As I understand it estrogen levels soar during pregnancy and are reduced post-partum and even suppressed below normal levels during breastfeeding so as not to pass on undo estrogen to small babies. This is why many women experience a lot of dryness post-partum. I never needed to moisturize before nursing. Now the tips of my fingers are so dry they are rough. Does suddenly receiving renewed levels of estrogen harm the toddler, or do these levels remain suppressed, in which case does that harm the developing baby?
In any case, when I posed this question to the good doctor, her response was "I really have no idea, that must be an American thing."
I explained that it was not particularly. She then asked me why a person would want to continue nursing a toddler while pregnant with an infant and went on to describe why for her that would not be an appropriate choice:
The mother can only share her body with an infant for so long. The goal of the parent is to encourage the autonomy of the child.
My french is not so good on the fly that I did adequate justice to the theory that children who are allowed to self-wean achieve their autonomy with greater confidence (a position with which I do not fully agree, but the logic of which I can understand). Our conversation was pleasant, although it did not provide any of the scientific answers for which I am looking. She seemed to actually want to understand why a person would make such a choice, despite being very firm in her belief that such a choice was not in the best interest of mother and child.
Later that day the little gnome and I were with Pete (our British friend who is visiting) at the Wallaby park. For the past few weeks we have been checking up on a little baby wallaby growing inside his mother's pouch. Last time we were there his little white head was poking out of the pouch. On this day he actually came all of the way out of the pouch and was climbing around his mama who was reclining on the grass. He looked like he was kissing her. His hind legs are enormous and not fully stable. He did not stray from his mother's side, but he did frolic about around her. She rose up on her hind legs at one point and we could see the round opening of her pouch, sort of like a bucket covered in fur and attached to her front.
After watching for a while with his face pressed against the gate the little gnome starting kicking the fence and the sudden sound startled the little Wallaby. Within moments he had jumped back into the pouch head first so that only the white foot of one of his gangly hind legs poked out of the opening. I asked the little gnome to stop scaring the baby Wallaby with the noises.
We waited for a while, but the little guy did not even poke his head out again. Only that small white foot remained visible at the opening of his mother's pouch.
