Breastfeeding 'linked to higher IQ'

Breastfeeding an infant, a practice, which has been going on since humans came on this planet, through creation or evolution (regardless of what you believe), is still the best possible practice to get an infant the essential nutrients, in that early stage of life.

Regardless of how much the world develops & how much Nestle or other companies try to sell infant formula, they still cannot replace the value of nutrition an infant receives from breast milk.
 
Furthermore, the breast milk is an affordable (read: free) source of nutrition for the infant. Many babies around the world die because of malnutrition or water-borne diseases, because of these formulas. How?

Mothers, in rural areas of developing nations, are given free samples of Nestle's infant formula in the beginning (these companies want to hook these mothers for life on formulas). Since, clean water is scarce in those areas, mothers use dirty water, & essentially, kill their newborn with their own hands.

Also, since biologically, if the mother's breasts are not used by the infant in those early days after birth, they dry up. After those free samples are gone, mothers are required to buy the formula. Those women don't have enough finances to purchase those relatively expensive formulas. So, those babies suffer malnutrition in their early days of growth, which in turn, inhibit their growth, or may even kill them.

On top of that, Islam teaches people that breastfeeding creates a very strong bond of love between a mother & her baby. We can see nowadays that many career women, especially the ones who are very busy in their careers, don't opt for breastfeeding. Heck, they may not even go for the whole pregnancy drama & just hire a surrogate. What happens when those kids grow up? Mothers don't know what their kids are doing & how they are growing up etc. Kids return that non-existent love by also not caring about their mothers.
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http://www.bbc.com/news/health-31925449

The research in Brazil traced nearly 3,500 babies, from all walks of life, & found those who had been breastfed for longer went on to score higher on IQ tests as adults.
 
Experts say the results, while not conclusive, appear to back current advice that babies should be exclusively breastfed for 6 months.
 
But they say mothers should still have a choice about whether or not to do it.
 
Regarding the findings - published in The Lancet Global Health - they stress there are many different factors other than breastfeeding that could have an impact on intelligence, although the researchers did try to rule out the main confounders, such as mother's education, family income & birth weight.
 
Dr. Bernardo Lessa Horta, from the Federal University of Pelotas in Brazil, said his study offers a unique insight because in the population he studied, breastfeeding was evenly distributed across social class - not something just practised by the rich & educated.
 
Most of the babies, irrespective of social class, were breastfed - some for less than a month and others for more than a year.
 
Those who were breastfed for longer scored higher on measures of intelligence as adults.
 
They were also more likely to earn a higher wage & to have completed more schooling.
 
Dr. Horta believes breast milk may offer an advantage because it is a good source of long-chain saturated fatty acids which are essential for brain development.
 
Kevin Fenton, national director of health & wellbeing, Public Health England, said there was strong evidence that breastfeeding provides some health benefits for babies - reduced respiratory & gastrointestinal infections in infancy, for example.
 
He said: "PHE's advice remains that exclusive breastfeeding for around the first 6 months of life provides health benefits to babies.
 
"We recognise however, that not all mothers choose, or are able, to breastfeed & infant formula is the only alternative to breast milk for babies under 12 months old."
 
Dr Colin Michie, chairman of the Royal College of Paediatrics & Child Health's nutrition committee, said: "There have been many studies on the link between breastfeeding & IQ over the years with many having had their validity challenged.
 
"This study however, looks at a number of other factors including education achievement & income at age 30 which, along with the high sample size, makes this study a very powerful one.
 
"It is important to note that breastfeeding is one of many factors that can contribute to a child's outcomes, however this study emphasises the need for continued & enhanced breastfeeding promotion so expectant mothers are aware of the benefits of breastfeeding."

Thailand's crackdown on 'wombs for rent'

As I previously blogged that how everything of ours, tangible or intangible, is up for sale, this story fits right in. Everything of ours has been commoditized & ready to be sold. These women are not doing it for the fun of it, but these Thai, Vietnamese, & even Indian (not in this story) women are put into such a dire position, financially, that they are ready to lease out their wombs.
 
Now, women, most likely from developed countries, who can't conceive child due to health reasons, or won't conceive child due to vanity (don't want to "destroy" their figure or can't take the pain of childbirth) can outsource this function to a poor woman in a developing country. It seems nothing is sacred enough to not outsource.
 
Similar to how outsourcing of manufacturing & clerical jobs to developing countries raised multiple ethical issues in regards to working conditions in those developing countries, this "womb-for-rent" program also raised several complicated & ethical issues.
 
Can a country effectively control this process & make it better through laws & regulations or simply shut it down? I think not. The process was already sort of running underground with some people abusing this program. Now, the laws will essentially further make this go underground & more women will be abused more severely, & the abusers will most likely won't be punished.
 
Why this process can't be improved through laws? Because, these poor women are especially sought out for these tasks & since, they need money desperately, they will be willing to do anything at any cost.
 
Also, this process won't grow much love & won't grow the bond stronger between a mother & her child. Why? Because, it's simply unnatural. The love between a child & a mother starts & grows stronger during those 9 months of pregnancy. Any mother will testify to it. Heck, the women in this story had a hard time giving those kids, for whom they were merely surrogates, to their biological parents. How can a mother who didn't endure those 9 months of pregnancy hardships can ever truly love a child, who is still her own flesh & blood, like a mother who goes through the pregnancy & has a spiritual, & flesh & blood link with that little fetus in her womb?
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When a surrogate baby scandal erupted in Thailand last year, many in the country did not know what to expect next.
 
First there was the young boy, apparently abandoned by the Australian couple who had commissioned a Thai surrogate mother to carry him.
 
The boy had Down's syndrome, but the couple had taken his twin sister back to Australia with them.
 
Then there were the 12 babies found living in a single apartment with nannies, all fathered by the same, mysterious young Japanese man.
 
Many more babies had already been spirited out of Thailand.
Today the Australian boy - named Gammy - lives with the woman who was paid to give birth to him, seemingly a loved member of his adopted family.
 
"I don't regret anything about the surrogacy", Pattaramon Chanbua told me. "I don't blame anyone. To me, Gammy is a blessing."
 
Mitsutoki Shigeta, the mystery Japanese man, is still fighting to get custody of the 12 babies he sired through various Thai surrogates.
 
Now, 5 years after it was first drafted, the Thai parliament has passed a law which it hopes will shut down the "wombs-for-rent" business for good.
 
Foreigners are banned from seeking surrogates in Thailand. Thai couples can find surrogate parents, but not through agents, or on any kind of commercial basis.
 
At the heart of the business are hard-up Thai women, who see 9 months carrying someone else's child as a relatively easy way to make good money.
 
Daeng, a factory worker living outside Bangkok, is another. A single mother in her 30s, she agreed to carry twins for Mr. Shigeta.
 
When the time came to hand them over, she admitted it was hard.
 
"I carried them for 9 months, & I loved them," she said. But she went through with the contract, & "would do it again - so would anybody - because of the money".
 
Daeng says she was paid the equivalent of 10 years' salary.
 
Other women have had unhappier surrogacy experiences.
4 years ago, 15 Vietnamese women were found in a Bangkok apartment, seven of them pregnant.
 
Some of them said they had been lured there with the promise of well-paid jobs; 2 said they had been raped.
 
A Taiwanese company called Babe-101 was accused by anti-trafficking groups of being behind the operation, but the police never pressed charges, & the doctor who supervised the conceptions & the births is still practising at a well-known Bangkok hospital.
 
Like much of Thailand's medical industry, the surrogacy business is profit-driven & poorly regulated.
 
The surrogate business in Thailand has often been a shadowy, unaccountable one. Now the practice has been more or less outlawed, there are justified fears that, with so much money on offer, it will simply be driven underground.
 
"We have no law enforcement", admits Dr Somsak Lolekha of the Thai Medical Council. "Just like drinking & driving. We have the law. But they never enforce it."

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-31556597