We are all angry at the unscrupulous manufacturers and distributors of the deadly milk powder that killed so many babies recently but have we ever thought that we are in the midst of losing a precious aspect of motherhood, the loss of which may have contributed to the tragedy.?

I am referring to breast-feeding - one of the dearest and most tender functions of child-rearing.

You may feel that this comment is irrelevant to the subject matter or just alarmist talk. But take note of this:

Experts from the National Baby-Friendly Organization have told young parents or parents-to-be: "The 12 babies in swaddling clothes met their untimely deaths before they could get a good look at the world. A hundred or more infants suffered from macrocephaly, nearly 1,000 infants suffered from stunted growth of the respiratory tract, the pituitary gland and the bones. The actual cause of these babies' poor health or deaths was the milk powder used to sustain their lives ..."

Deadly as the shoddy milk powder was, the tragedy was, nevertheless, not inevitable. As the experts said: "If they had been fed quality dairy products or if they had been fed their mothers' milk ... the tragedy would not have happened."

When the Creator created women and entrusted them with the task of bearing children so He gave them the food to feed their infants - that is, their natural breast milk. I don't know if there was such thing as milk powder in the old agricultural society nor do I know how women fed their babies in the past but let's speak of women today.

How many women breast-feed their babies? The experts from the National Baby-Friendly Organization said: 'Over half of young mothers in China refuse to breast-feed their babies for one reason or another. The fact that the shoddy milk powder could cause harm to so many infants is a painful lesson for Chinese mothers to learn and undertake self-criticism."

Why don't Chinese mothers nowadays want to breast-feed their babies? The experts gave a variety of reasons without mentioning the most important one - either wittingly or unwittingly, or maybe it's too grating on the ears to mention - the most important reason is that "motherhood" is gradually dying.

The modern mother is understandably more concerned with her outward appearance but it is somewhat unreasonable for the sense of beauty to overwhelm the sense of motherhood. For example, young mothers always gained much weight during their pregnancy and it's rather difficult to lose all the excess weight.

And the physical transformation of their bodies was also a problem that bothered young mothers and mothers during breast-feeding cannot go on a diet. Therefore, most young mothers would choose to feed their babies dairy products rather than their own breast milk.

In addition, modern mothers have to deal with various kinds of difficult situations. For instance, they're too busy with work and maternity leave is too short.

Do Western women have no work pressures?

Career women in the West often take time off from their work to breast-feed their babies at home and full-time mothers usually suckle their babies until they're 18 months old.

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