Sci-Fi Generation ship: 100% breastmilk solution

[caters]

I was thinking about the possible issues with breastfeeding and how the aliens on the generation ship are anti formula. So I think I have come up with a solution that doesn't involve any formula whatsoever.

Here are the potential issues with breastfeeding:

• Low milk supply
• Overproduction
• Medical issue with the mom
• Baby too premature
• Mom just won't breastfeed

Of course, if the baby is too premature for direct nursing, then either IV nutrition or an NG tube would be given and if the NG tube is given, the mom can connect a breast pump to the NG tube and if an IV is given, the mom can pump breastmilk and store it.

Low milk supply could be corrected with either a lactogenic treatment(increased lactation) or supplemental breastmilk from donors.

A woman with an overproduction issue would be a great breastmilk donor.

Now, I was thinking that if none of these 3 previous issues is the problem, then depending on whether it is medical or personal, the mom should be treated differently but the baby should be treated the same.

The baby would either be:

• Fed by a mom that is already breastfeeding
• Fed by a young woman who has induced lactation

Or in WCS, fed by an alien who is lactating.

For women with a medical issue, lactation should be stopped as soon as possible. For those with a personal issue, they should donate breastmilk.

But is my reasoning about breastfeeding issues and how to solve them logical for a generation ship where the aliens are very anti formula? Or is there a fault in my logic somewhere?

 

[sci-fi-dude]

Or, or, you could supply Carnation's powdered milk,,,,,

 

[caters]

Or, or, you could supply Carnation's powdered milk,,,,,

I think powdered milk would only work for babies that are already eating solids. In fact, they say that 8 months is the minimum age to introduce dairy because before 8 months, there is a higher chance of milk allergy.

 

[sci-fi-dude]

I became lactose intolerant when I was a teen, I would guzzle milk and peanut butter crackers when I lived up north, and watch old movies. Lots of long winters up in the frosty rust belt.

So now I have to be careful about dairy products, I see where the powdered milk would be an issue, I certainly hope you are a woman, I reckon most gents wouldn't know of this situation.....

 

[Tom]

1. Why would aliens be on a human generation ship?
2. Why would aliens care how humans raise their young?
3. If there is technology to design, launch, maintain and inhabit a generation ship, part of the planning will obviously be in the maintenance of the occupants. While natural nutrition may be encouraged I'm sure there would be advanced medical facilities and supplies to assure the nutritional needs of all the occupants. If disease is a factor, it would jeopardize the mission. Chances are, on a generation ship, most of the children will be grown in incubation chambers from a 'seed bank'. The whole concept of mother, father and child will be lost to time by the time a second generation is needed. I seriously doubt families will exist until their destination is reached and reproduction returns to its natural state.

 

[sci-fi-dude]

1. Why would aliens be on a human generation ship?
2. Why would aliens care how humans raise their young?
3. If there is technology to design, launch, maintain and inhabit a generation ship, part of the planning will obviously be in the maintenance of the occupants. While natural nutrition may be encouraged I'm sure there would be advanced medical facilities and supplies to assure the nutritional needs of all the occupants. If disease is a factor, it would jeopardize the mission. Chances are, on a generation ship, most of the children will be grown in incubation chambers from a 'seed bank'. The whole concept of mother, father and child will be lost to time by the time a second generation is needed. I seriously doubt families will exist until their destination is reached and reproduction returns to its natural state.

Yah, hear, hear, but, you know, I would never go on a ship like that, moon base Alpha works for me, ill leave the deep space goodies for the Enterprise, or the Jupiter 2.

 

[sci-fi-dude]

Off topic, I watched the Comedy dare show, Impractical Joker's, and Sal lost the game and was forced to drink real Brestisis milk, and he puked, he said it was nasty and it tasted of soy milk! lol

 

[Tom]

Chances are, by the time we have the technology and resources to build and launch a generation ship to another world we will also have mastered nano-technology.
Stasis methods will already be worked out and implemented.
Automation will already be reliable and implemented.
AI will handle ship dynamics and maintenance while the generations in the hold will sleep.
Not only will there be human seed vaults it is likely there will be vaults of all available life forms from Earth included.
Its likely a command and maintenance crew will sleep in a auto-wake chamber in case of failure of one or more of the AI systems. Even with an extreme duration cycle, the active crew will have no need for a family society. Children would interfere with their duty. It would jeopardize the mission so it would be planned ahead. Perhaps the live crew members would be sterilized to assure no 'accidents' happen while they are needed to run ship operations and repairs.

I liken it to the film Passengers (2016) - IMDb and no aliens are needed.
In Alien: Covenant (2017) - IMDb there were crew, colonists and embryos. Again, no aliens needed.

Even in space stations and orbital long duration platforms, stasis technology may be employed as a 'shift' alternative to transporting new crews. 50 crew awake at any given time while 150 crew in stasis, awakened on shifts. Transport with crew replacements and crew rotation every 200 years or so.

 

[caters]

But, I was planning on there being families all the way there for 800 years, not just at departure from earth and arrival on the new planet. And it is the aliens that built the generation ship in the first place and they are friendly to humans so of course they would care about whether a mom is formula feeding or breastfeeding.

I myself am anti-formula and so if I had a baby, biological or adoptive, I would do everything I can to breastfeed that baby(comes naturally with birth, induce lactation if adoptive) and if I had a medical issue that prevented me from breastfeeding, I would have a wet nurse take care of breastfeeding(literally, their job is breastfeeding babies and they can breastfeed for 20 years or more without becoming pregnant in those 20+ years) and if I couldn't find one, that is when I would use formula.

The aliens are the ones that make sure that everything works as well as steer the generation ship away from high gravity objects like neutron stars and black holes. They are the ones that do medical services. They are the ones that have half of the humans adapt to being nocturnal. Sure, they have robots on the generation ship as well but most of the work is done by the aliens. The aliens are about 1/3 diurnal, 1/3 crepuscular, and 1/3 nocturnal as babies due to the combination of genetics and hatching time. Other environmental factors like for example a power outage change these ratios and as adults, only about 1% of aliens are crepuscular and the other 99% are split almost evenly between diurnal and nocturnal. And there are both living quarters and sleeping quarters on the generation ship for humans as well as for aliens.

 

[Tom]

Lack of a complete picture prevents me from understanding.

Aliens would need to understand the entire physiological lifespan of humans. Not just certain humans but all humans. They would need to understand all the potential hazards to humans as well.

Then we must assume that the aliens arrived at Earth on a similar generation ship with a long duration travel time. Any alien able to cross the vast distances in one life either has a means of travel above light speed or a very, very long lifespan. The need for a generation ship would have to match their technology level. Otherwise, why do a generation ship at all?

It also supposes that the said aliens, that evolved under different conditions than humans, are physically compatible with humans. Their ship designs would be based on alien physiology not human. Their day/night cycles would certainly not mesh. Their light requirements would need to be based on our Sun and their gravity on our Earth. Any variation will cause human mutation, especially during gestation.

It assumes that aliens have mammary glands to feed their young. It assumes aliens have similar reproductive methods. It assumes aliens prefer suckling. Human breast milk offers babies antibodies and nutrients from the mother's body process. Right now, there are formulas that offer better antibody and nutrients than some mothers bodies can produce. Aliens with the needed knowledge of human physiology and their high technology could simply manufacture, possibly, a better formula that can be offered by a mother naturally.

It assumes that aliens rear their young with a loving connection. It assumes they recognize mother/child bonding as important to species propagation. It assumes the aliens wish to not change humans but the very act of placing them on a generation ship where the humans experience the trip will change them. Not only physically but socially as well.

Aliens will be well, alien. To assume anything based on human environment is a fallacy. Aliens evolve in conditions unlike the conditions humans evolve. Even if the generation ship is a type of zoo keep, there will be differences that will change the human base form. Zoos here on Earth can't perfectly recreate wild conditions for animals and there is no change in many of the vital factors like gravity, sunlight composition, heat, light cycles. We change the animals we keep. We change them over time, within a single life span. An animal kept for 20 years in captivity will perish if put to the wild. An animal born in captivity certainly will.

Even if an alien were evolved on a planet under similar environmental influences, it may have radically different social structures, values and morals, if any at all. Aliens will be alien when we meet them. There is a chance they may be so different from us that no similarities exist.

Over the course of human history our morals and values have changed. Societies rise and fall. Right now, across the planet there is diversity in human morals and values. To assume that an alien species from another part of the galaxy or Universe has the same morals and values as humans is terrible. A completely benevolent alien culture is unreasonable. It is impossible to speculate on alien motives until we actually meet one.

Now, about the real reason for this topic.

Right now, I think it is commendable for a mother to breast feed. Not as a nutritional advantage but as a bonding experience. Even a mother that is breast feeding should supplement the child's diet with a formula as prescribed by a doctor. Any deviation in the child's health should call for a reassessment of the nutrition.
All breast milk is unique to the mother. Just any old breast milk may not be healthy for any child. It might do for an emergency but the child needs specific nutrients according to their genome. Mother's milk is at least genetically compatible.

My children were raised on formula. My grand children are a mix of breast fed and formula fed. All have turned out just fine. My one son had issue with one type of formula and the doctor switched to a different formula and the problem went away. One of my grandchildren had low weight gain on breast milk and had to be supplemented with formula. I have 14 grand children and one more on the way. No two had the same requirements. I have noticed that the grandchildren that were breast fed have a tighter bond with their mothers. Since I am family oriented and my children are likewise that bond facilitates family values and morals that are more easily adopted. My formula fed children have family values and morals but they were more difficult for them to adopt.

If you are a woman trying to decide on the best feeding method for your child I suggest you have your doctor first run tests on you to see if you produce the correct ratios of nutrients needed for a child's health. Then consider using both methods as the child's requirements will change as they age. If possible, the father should be close while breastfeeding to assure an equal bonding. When weening, slowly switch methods but continue the closeness.

 

[sci-fi-dude]

Nah forget all that, water is essential for your trip to nowhere, beer, fruit juice, wine etc. Heck if the ship is big, have some cattle, cow and goats milk works just fine too, I doubt where the space ship ends up there truly is no life, just like a message in a bottle to nowhere....

 

[caters]

I know water is essential which is why I have recycling of water from sewage. Giving plain water to a newborn is dangerous. If you give water to a newborn then because it gets fully hydrated from breastmilk or formula, adding water causes overhydration and overhydration can be just as big of a problem as dehydration. And I have read about how to treat dehydration in a newborn and for formula fed babies it is oral rehydration solution and for breastfed babies it is just frequent breastfeeding. Overhydration not only causes urine to be clear but it can cause seizures, coma, or even death. Much easier for a newborn to get overhydrated than an adult(a newborn would only need a few ounces of water to be significantly overhydrated, an adult would need at least a gallon of water to be overhydrated to the point that it is symptomatic)

And there could easily be life on planets far away from our solar system, especially earth-like planets of which the destination planet is 1 of them.

 

[sci-fi-dude]

I know water is essential which is why I have recycling of water from sewage. Giving plain water to a newborn is dangerous. If you give water to a newborn then because it gets fully hydrated from breastmilk or formula, adding water causes overhydration and overhydration can be just as big of a problem as dehydration. And I have read about how to treat dehydration in a newborn and for formula fed babies it is oral rehydration solution and for breastfed babies it is just frequent breastfeeding. Overhydration not only causes urine to be clear but it can cause seizures, coma, or even death. Much easier for a newborn to get overhydrated than an adult(a newborn would only need a few ounces of water to be significantly overhydrated, an adult would need at least a gallon of water to be overhydrated to the point that it is symptomatic)

And there could easily be life on planets far away from our solar system, especially earth-like planets of which the destination planet is 1 of them.

I wasn't brestisis fed, I reckon I had water and regular milk from a cow, my generation is much tougher and hearty than the newest generation, no offense, but I eat nails for breakfast, and my and my bro's are good out doors men. You could find some gals who are lactating, if that's what yall call it, and get to feeding, but the trip would be a waste of time, I could see mars, and the moon, maybe Saturn or its moon being populated, or you could teach humans about birth control. Btw you and Tom are pretty interesting, I'm a sci-fan of many years, so I enjoy your stories....