THE SUCKLING MOTHER (Part 2)

“Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse a baby?
Yet I have given Abraham a son in his old age”
(Genesis 21:7 NLT).

How did Sarah describe motherhood? She could have used so many descriptions because motherhood is a huge career which hundreds of titles. But she chose the same description Jesus used in Matthew 19 of a suckling mother.  Let’s read it again in the KJV: “Who would have said unto Abraham, that Sarah should have given children suck? For I have born him a son in his old age.”

God gives physical breasts to women to feed and nourish life. However, He also puts this maternal anointing in each of His female creation to nurture, feed, and protect. It is inherently within every female. Even women who may never have the opportunity to nurse a baby still have this nurturing anointing that God has put within them. It is natural for them to be maternal.

However, although every female is born with a nurturing anointing, we receive a double portion when we are breastfeeding. God gives the hormones of oxytocin and prolactin to the nursing mother which release even greater motherly hormones to her. The more the mother nurses her baby, the more motherly she becomes.

Oxytocin is released by the pituitary gland and is the hormone that stimulates the mother’s let-down or milk-ejection reflex. This incredible molecule of motherly love is called by many other different names:

The stress relieving hormone,

The calming hormone, reducing blood pressure, cortisol levels, fear, anxiety, and staving off psychological as well as physiological problems,

The life hormone,

The love hormone,

The cuddle hormone,

The bonding hormone,

The empathy hormone,

The trust hormone, and even

The bliss hormone!

Who wouldn’t want to have this hormone? Who wouldn’t want to get as much of it as she can? It’s a great way to live instead of being filled with anxiety and stress. And this is the blessing God gives to every nursing mother.

Now, here’s a secret: keep nursing your baby as long as you can! Don’t wean your baby before he or she is ready. Enjoy oxytocin as much as you ca. And remember, you are a suckling mother. So you may as well be one!

Prolactin is another wonderful hormone. It’s a very strong protective hormone. Studies reveal that when they inject this hormone into a rooster it becomes “clucky” and begins to mother the chickens. A female animal nursing her young in the wild will fight to death any other animal that comes near her young.

Every time a mother puts her baby to the breast, she releases prolactin which causes her to become more motherly. It also makes her very protective of her baby. This is why it is painful for a nursing mother to leave her baby. She is tied to her baby. And this is how God intends it.

Many scientific studies also reveal that lengthy nursing of babies is a deterrent to breast cancer and other female cancers. And this is apart from all the blessings to the baby.

Isaih 66:10-13 is a beautiful allegory about motherhood. God is writing about Judah but likens her to a nursing mother. As we read these Scriptures, we understand how God sees breastfeeding. The word “food” is not even mentioned but these are the words were read—satisfying, consoling, delighting, and comforting. And what does God call the breasts? Glorious! God’s way is always the best way.

Be blessed, NANCY CAMPBELL

www.aboverubies.org

PRAYER:

“Thank you, Lord God, that You do not leave me to survive on my own. You have provided all the hormones I need to enjoy this beautiful gift of nursing my baby. Thank You for Your beautiful design. Amen.”

AFFIRMATION:

Breastfeeding is synonymous with motherhood.