Differences And Similarities Between The Selfish Genes And Our Babies

On the surface level, Dawkins’s Selfish Gene, Small’s Our babies, Ourselves, and Sapolsky’s Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers appear to have little in common. However, while the three books are incredibly different from each other due to the subjects they discuss and the manner in which the books approach the topics of parenting and babies, genetics and evolution, as well as stress--both acute and chronic, they also share similarities, one of which is over the topic of breastfeeding. Although breastfeeding is a common practice in several cultures and is becoming more prominent among parents in America for feeding infants, breastfeeding also has several shortcomings, mostly due to socioeconomic and cultural stressors. While Dawkins’s The Selfish
Although Dawkins does not so much as discuss the benefits of breastfeeding, the way in which the selfish gene theory is utilized to promote family planning, also links into Small’s discussion on how vital breastfeeding is for both babies and their mothers. In the opening pages of the seventh chapter of Dawkins’s The Selfish Gene, the vital role that breastfeeding would play would likely follow under the concept outlined within that first paragraph: child-caring (Dawkins 206). The caring decision, as outlined in an example provided by Dawkins, operates in the following way, “‘The caring decisions are of this form: ‘There is a child; its degree of relatedness to me
In Small’s Our Babies, Ourselves, the author highlights this in terms of the nutrients babies receive from the milk. As it is carried by the mother, the milk can provide good nutrients, and, logically, bad things as well, as it is transferred from the mother to child (Small 203). Therefore, breastfeeding, while the best way to nourish the infant, also poses risks that cannot be ignored. In an article by Haksari, Wandita, and Yustivani (2010), the researchers discuss risk factors in certain breast-feeding practices that can lead to low weight infants (Haksari, Wandita, and Yustivani 2010). Small’s Our Babies, Ourselves addresses other complications to breast-feeding, including the separation of infants from their mothers in the hospital (Small 179). However, Haskari, Wandita, and Yustivani’s study also highlight that, cultural differences in breastfeeding aside, the very way in which people do it may also have an impact on the health of infants, especially in communities where mothers were required to return to work right away (Haskari, Wandita, and Yustivani