Warnings resurface about moms' 'brexting'

They are everywhere and anywhere. At least 5 billion people own a mobile phone, and they have become an integral part of life for every user.

As the number of women breastfeeding their babies also has increased, a topic that surfaced in 2015 is back again: "brexting" — breastfeeding and texting.

Could excessive use of a mobile phone by a mother while breastfeeding a newborn affect their bond?

In 2015, two clinicians — Terry Bretscher, a lactation supervisor, and Dr Kateyune Kaeni from Pomona Valley Medical Center in California — sparked something of an international backlash after they told a local radio station that mothers shouldn't do it.

And the backlash continues.

One mother commented online: "I read books. (What's the difference between books and reading a screen? Precious little!) If I hadn't read books during the six months I sat on the couch and fed my daughter, I might have gone crazy."

Georgina Dent wrote on Mamamia, an Australian opinion and lifestyle website for women: "Yes, I breastfeed my infant daughter while texting. I am also guilty of branking. Of bremailing. Of bracebooking. Of branstagramming. Of brweeting. Of breading."

Anya Kamenetz, author of The Art of Screen Time: How Your Family Can Balance Digital Media and Real Life, wrote at the end of an excerpt from her book published in the Jan 29, 2018, issue of Time magazine:

"Put down your phone around your own children, if you can and when you feel you ought to. But don't presume to tell me or other mothers what to do with their own lives, or lifelines."

Many experts on infant care say mothers of newborns need to be aware of the potential fallout from frequent cellphone use or any other activities while breastfeeding.

"The experience of breastfeeding by and large is the most bonded experience, and it's a cocoon of nurturing, and for the most part that cocoon should not be broken," Dr Michelle Canarick, a clinical psychologist based in New York who runs a group called NYC Moms Support, told China Daily.

"A baby is getting that warmth and that nurturing and that cocoon by the simple act of nurturing. As they age, they look at your face and they want to interact with you, and as that happens, you are forming and building an attachment. Those bonds are being built over multiple dimensions and interactions. [But] not every single interaction a mom has with her baby is going to be a connected one."

A 2017 study of 75 mothers with babies under 6 months old showed that one-fourth of them text, swipe through content, use their tablet, or watch TV while breastfeeding or bottle feeding, according to Alison Ventura, an assistant professor and researcher at California Polytechnic State University, who did the study.

Much of the concern about the damage that may be done by preoccupied mothers with babies stems from a 1970s experiment in which mothers were asked to sit near their babies and instead of cooing and saying "hi'' to their infants, they were told to show no expressions.

The babies who tried to interact with their mothers but got the expressionless look back became "wary" and looked "hopeless" and soon turned away in distress, development psychologist Edward Tronick wrote in a 1978 paper.

But when mothers returned to using a sweet, high-pitched voice, smiling and engaging with their babies, the children would grin and look happy.

The original study — known as the "still face" experiment — was done before smartphones appeared. But some behavioral experts now suggest that a distracted mother scrolling on her mobile device is giving her baby a "still face" that could haunt the little one.

"I want us to pause and think carefully about our phone use when we're feeding. What are the consequences if we're spending every feed glued to our phone? What might our babies be missing out on if we're digitally distracted?" asked Dr Kristy Goodwin, a parenting educator and expert in Sydney, Australia, on the impact of technology on families.

She told China Daily that it is important for mothers to consider how phone use can affect a newborn, but added that nobody should "shame'' mothers for doing so.

Infants being breastfed are engaging in "facial mapping'', said Goodwin. They are performing important visual and cognitive tasks that are a critical part of their development. And that's one reason they need to be held and played with, she said.

If a baby doesn't receive the proper maternal care it needs, it can disrupt brain development and lead to emotional disorders in adolescence and adulthood, according to research from the University of California. It can also increase the likelihood of them getting mental disorders such as depression later in life.

A newborn will stare at a person's face for long periods of time to connect. Some parts of the brain light up when they look at faces. making it a crucial part of their development.

While evidence suggests a mother using a phone constantly could distract her from her baby, it's important to consider the plethora of things that mothers do on their phones, says Heather McFadden, a lactation expert in New York who visits new mothers at home and helps them with breastfeeding.

"I do see moms doing this [brexting] a lot," McFadden told China Daily. "But one of the reasons might be that they are using their phones for feeding apps that track babies' diaper changes and all that.

"You can keep a log that goes on and on and … it will add it all up like an Excel spreadsheet, and the dad can have the same app so they can communicate it, and it will transfer it to him on the phone," she said. "So, that's part of it. They are getting on their phones to do this."