美国国家公共电台 NPR Secrets Of Breast-Feeding From Global Moms In The Know

 

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

Today in Your Health, we're going to learn about the secrets of breast-feeding. Many women want to breast-feed and they try to, but only about half keep it up. It's like we have lost the instinct in some way.

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

And there is a researcher who thinks that she has figured out why and also how to get the instinct back. Here's NPR's Michaeleen Doucleff.

AMARA SCHUMACHER: (Crying).

MICHAELEEN DOUCLEFF, BYLINE¹: Little Amara Schumacher (ph) is only 5 days old, and she's very hungry. She's lying on her mother's bare chest trying to nurse.

MARELLA ABUNAYAN: There you go. There you go.

DOUCLEFF: But she can't get the hang of it.

ABUNAYAN: I know. I know. It's right there.

DOUCLEFF: Amara's mom, Marella Abunayan (ph), desperately² wants to breast-feed, but the baby isn't getting enough milk. She has already lost nearly 10 percent of her body weight. The pediatrician is worried. So is her dad, Scott.

SCOTT SCHUMACHER: The problem is you get to the hospital, I mean, they give you the baby. And they don't really tell you what to do.

DOUCLEFF: So Amara hasn't been nursing correctly, and she damaged Marella's breast.

ABUNAYAN: Oh, my God. She was off to the side of my nipple just, like, chomping⁴ on my areola, like, and bruising⁵ it. I was like, what did we do to you, you poor thing?

SCHUMACHER: Yeah.

DOUCLEFF: And then that makes it harder and harder.

SCHUMACHER: Yeah, that...

ABUNAYAN: Yeah, I'm in pain. She's starving. It's...

SCHUMACHER: And she's getting frustrated⁶.

DOUCLEFF: And not getting enough food.

SCHUMACHER: We definitely need some help.

DOUCLEFF: Scott and Marella aren't alone. Researchers at UC Davis Medical Center have found that more than 90 percent of new moms have problems breast-feeding at the beginning. A year and a half ago, I was one of them.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

DOUCLEFF: At this point, I'm about 33 days into breast-feeding, and I have to say that (crying) I really want to quit. It's so much harder than I thought it was going to be.

For almost all mammals, breast-feeding is basically an instinct. It's automatic. If you have any doubt of this, just search on YouTube for puppies nursing, and you'll see the instinct in action.

(SOUNDBITE OF YOUTUBE VIDEO)

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Good girl. There you go.

DOUCLEFF: In one video, a little pit bull puppy with his eyes closed and his body wet crawls to his mom's chest, nuzzles in and starts nursing.

(SOUNDBITE OF YOUTUBE VIDEO)

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Good girl, Brandy (ph). Go ahead. You're a good girl. You're a good girl, Mom.

DOUCLEFF: It's easy. It's beautiful. And it's exactly the opposite of what happens with so many moms in the U.S. Brooke Scelza is an evolutionary⁷ anthropologist⁸ at UCLA. She says women have a huge number of problems breast-feeding. They have pain, infections, low supply of milk and about half can't get the baby to latch⁹ onto the nipple.

BROOKE SCELZA: Which is surprising - right? - because this is a really critical function for child survival. And if you can't figure this out, your infant is going to be in really big trouble.

DOUCLEFF: It's almost like in the U.S. we've lost the breast-feeding instinct, that Western society has messed it up somehow. Scelza wanted to figure out why, what we've lost, what are we doing wrong.

So a few years ago, she traveled to a place with some of the best breast-feeders in the world. In northern Namibia, along the coast of Western Africa, there's a rocky desert where a tribe still lives a lot like they did hundreds of years ago. They're called Himba.

SCELZA: They're cattle herders, basically, but they also have gardens where they grow maize¹⁰ and pumpkins¹¹ and things like that.

DOUCLEFF: Moms still give birth in the home in mud huts, and all moms breast-feed.

SCELZA: There's basically no use of formula or bottles or anything like that in this community.

DOUCLEFF: She also says Himba women make breast-feeding look easy. They even do it while they're walking around.

SCELZA: So women will carry the babies with them on their backs, and the baby cries, they take the baby out, feed the baby, put the baby to sleep.

DOUCLEFF: Scelza and many researchers have thought this might be the reason why Himba are so successful at breast-feeding. They see it all the time while they're growing up.

SCELZA: It's not stigmatized¹² at all.

DOUCLEFF: They see their moms do it, their friends, their siblings¹³. But in the U.S., we hardly ever see mothers breast-feeding, so we never learn. Turns out, that idea is completely wrong.

SCELZA: Yeah, well, I'm telling you, that's exactly what I thought was going on until I started to talk to people.

DOUCLEFF: Scelza interviewed dozens of Himba women, and guess what?

SCELZA: Many of the women that I talked to actually struggled a lot with learning how to breast-feed.

DOUCLEFF: Many women had all the problems American women have - pain, sore nipples, they can't get the baby to latch. So how do Himba women get over these problems? Scelza says they have a secret weapon that many American women don't.

SCELZA: Grandmothers.

DOUCLEFF: Grandmas - that's right, the new mom's mom.

SCELZA: When a Himba woman gives birth, she - typically, she goes home to her mother's compound, and she stays there for months after the birth.

DOUCLEFF: And the grandma shows her everything she needs to know about breast-feeding.

SCELZA: What to do, when to do it, how to get the baby to latch, how to hold the baby - so really giving them a lot of direct guidance.

DOUCLEFF: So what our culture has lost is having a grandma around 24/7 to be a teacher, a guide. But there is a way of getting this help back, at least partially¹⁴. In fact, many health insurers will pay for the next best thing to a Himba grandma.

SCHUMACHER: Hey, how's it going?

CAROLEEN CAHAVE: Hi, Scott.

DOUCLEFF: Back in San Francisco, that's just what Marella and Scott have done.

SCHUMACHER: Good, good.

DOUCLEFF: They've hired Caroleen Cahave (ph), a certified¹⁵ lactation consultant¹⁶. She's come to their home to teach Marella all the tricks of breast-feeding...

AMARA: (Crying).

DOUCLEFF: ...Like using a pump to help the milk start flowing, massaging¹⁷ the breast and putting pillows underneath¹⁸ the baby to get her in the right position.

AMARA: (Crying).

CAHAVE: If you want to help her and get her a little bit more on this side, that's OK. There you go. Perfect. Perfect.

DOUCLEFF: And then Cahave does something that's almost unbelievable. She shows Marella a trick that's exactly what Himba women do to get newborns to latch.

CAHAVE: You can kind of scissor - yeah, scissor is great. Perfect.

DOUCLEFF: She uses her two fingers to make a scissor motion around her breast to help Amara latch on.

AMARA: (Cooing).

DOUCLEFF: Then almost like magic, Amara opens her mouth...

CAHAVE: In your mouth.

DOUCLEFF: ...And...

ABUNAYAN: Oh, my God.

DOUCLEFF: ...Starts nursing.

CAHAVE: She's doing it.

ABUNAYAN: Yeah (laughter).

DOUCLEFF: Once she got the hang of it, Amara quickly gained weight. And a few weeks later, Marella was a breast-feeding pro³, even nursing while carrying Amara in a sling¹⁹, just like a Himba woman. And for those of you wondering, I also got help with a lactation consultant and made it through.

Michaeleen Doucleff, NPR News.

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1 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

2 desperately   

adv.极度渴望地，绝望地，孤注一掷地

参考例句：

• He was desperately seeking a way to see her again.他正拼命想办法再见她一面。
• He longed desperately to be back at home.他非常渴望回家。

3 pro   

n.赞成，赞成的意见，赞成者

参考例句：

• The two debating teams argued the question pro and con.辩论的两组从赞成与反对两方面辩这一问题。
• Are you pro or con nuclear disarmament?你是赞成还是反对核裁军？

4 chomping   

v.切齿，格格地咬牙，咬响牙齿( chomp的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• Elizabeth and Lawrence are chomping at the bit to go on vacation. 伊莉莎白和劳伦斯迫不及待要去度假了。 来自互联网
• She was chomping away on a bagel. 她在嘎蹦嘎嘣地啃着一个硬面包圈。 来自互联网

5 bruising   

adj.殊死的；十分激烈的v.擦伤(bruise的现在分词形式)

参考例句：

• He suffered cracked ribs and bruising. 他断了肋骨还有挫伤。
• He slipped and fell, badly bruising an elbow. 他滑倒了，一只胳膊肘严重擦伤。 来自辞典例句

6 frustrated   

adj.挫败的，失意的，泄气的v.使不成功( frustrate的过去式和过去分词 )；挫败；使受挫折；令人沮丧

参考例句：

• It's very easy to get frustrated in this job. 这个工作很容易令人懊恼。
• The bad weather frustrated all our hopes of going out. 恶劣的天气破坏了我们出行的愿望。 来自《简明英汉词典》

7 evolutionary   

adj.进化的；演化的，演变的；[生]进化论的

参考例句：

• Life has its own evolutionary process.生命有其自身的进化过程。
• These are fascinating questions to be resolved by the evolutionary studies of plants.这些十分吸引人的问题将在研究植物进化过程中得以解决。

8 anthropologist   

n.人类学家，人类学者

参考例句：

• The lecturer is an anthropologist.这位讲师是人类学家。
• The anthropologist unearthed the skull of an ancient human at the site.人类学家在这个遗址挖掘出那块古人类的颅骨。

9 latch   

n.门闩，窗闩；弹簧锁

参考例句：

• She laid her hand on the latch of the door.她把手放在门闩上。
• The repairman installed an iron latch on the door.修理工在门上安了铁门闩。

10 maize   

n.玉米

参考例句：

• There's a field planted with maize behind the house.房子后面有一块玉米地。
• We can grow sorghum or maize on this plot.这块地可以种高粱或玉米。

11 pumpkins   

n.南瓜( pumpkin的名词复数 )；南瓜的果肉，南瓜囊

参考例句：

• I like white gourds, but not pumpkins. 我喜欢吃冬瓜，但不喜欢吃南瓜。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Then they cut faces in the pumpkins and put lights inside. 然后在南瓜上刻出一张脸，并把瓜挖空。 来自英语晨读30分（高三）

12 stigmatized   

v.使受耻辱，指责，污辱( stigmatize的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He was stigmatized as an ex-convict. 他遭人污辱，说他给判过刑。 来自辞典例句
• Such a view has been stigmatized as mechanical jurisprudence. 蔑称这种观点为机械法学。 来自辞典例句

13 siblings   

n.兄弟，姐妹( sibling的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• A triplet sleeps amongst its two siblings. 一个三胞胎睡在其两个同胞之间。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• She has no way of tracking the donor or her half-siblings down. 她没办法找到那个捐精者或她的兄弟姐妹。 来自时文部分

14 partially   

adv.部分地，从某些方面讲

参考例句：

• The door was partially concealed by the drapes.门有一部分被门帘遮住了。
• The police managed to restore calm and the curfew was partially lifted.警方设法恢复了平静，宵禁部分解除。

15 certified   

a.经证明合格的；具有证明文件的

参考例句：

• Doctors certified him as insane. 医生证明他精神失常。
• The planes were certified airworthy. 飞机被证明适于航行。

16 consultant   

n.顾问；会诊医师，专科医生

参考例句：

• He is a consultant on law affairs to the mayor.他是市长的一个法律顾问。
• Originally,Gar had agreed to come up as a consultant.原来，加尔只答应来充当我们的顾问。

17 massaging   

按摩，推拿( massage的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• He watched the prisoner massaging his freed wrists. 他看着那个犯人不断揉搓着刚松开的两只手腕。
• Massaging your leg will ease the cramp. 推拿大腿可解除抽筋。

18 underneath   

adj.在...下面，在...底下；adv.在下面

参考例句：

• Working underneath the car is always a messy job.在汽车底下工作是件脏活。
• She wore a coat with a dress underneath.她穿着一件大衣，里面套着一条连衣裙。

19 sling   

vt.扔；悬挂；n.挂带；吊索，吊兜；弹弓

参考例句：

• The boy discharged a stone from a sling.这个男孩用弹弓射石头。
• By using a hoist the movers were able to sling the piano to the third floor.搬运工人用吊车才把钢琴吊到3楼。