It is sad to walk the streets of Papua New Guinea and see young mothers carrying babies who look like shrunken skeletons. There may be several reasons for this.
First that the mother is very young, perhaps a teenager who has given birth to small baby. It may be that the mother smoked during pregnancy and after while the baby is at the breast.
The mother's milk may not have the necessary nutrients and antibodies. The baby may be bottle fed and given a non-nutritious diet of food.
I am reminded of the small underfed and sickly puppies in a litter. They are always the last to be born and the last to get to the mothers teats. The colostrum has been drunk by the first puppies. So the runt of the litter misses out.
My daughters are always bringing home the runts of litters they find hiding by the road side. They feed them and then they die. My daughters cry.
There is a lesson in the lives of my daughters' babies to come. A human baby can be a runt if not given the breast milk, especially the first creamy colostrum They will not survive a smoking mother before and after birth.
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