Breastfeeding your baby is the best and healthiest practice for both mother and baby.
What is breastfeeding? Breastfeeding is when you feed your baby breast milk directly from your breast.
Though there are alternatives such as pumping your own breast for breast milk and storing it in a bottle due to circumstances such as producing insufficient breastmilk supply or medication that are not breastfeeding safe. Read article to learn more, http://www.babyhealthcare.us/healthy-alternatives-to-breastfeeding/
However, breastfeeding was the norm until the 20th century when both Canada and the United States of America started to associate this practice with low class and lack of education.
Formula was introduced especially after World War 2, which sadly had significantly impacted the infant’s health and safety. Breastfeeding increased a bit in the 1960s forward partly because of, United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and World Health Organization (WHO).
Studies from Harvard T.H. Chan (School of Public Health) and many other institutions have proven that for decades breastfeeding is the best way to feed infants. It contributes to health, psychological, and financial benefits. According to a study, breast milk and the experience of breastfeeding protect babies against malnutrition and infections.
Breastfeeding also presents a unique mother-baby bonding opportunity. It promotes psychological wellbeing for mothers and babies; as well as contributes to children’s cognitive development. Breastfeeding also protects longer-term health of the child by reducing his or her obesity and related conditions such as diabetes and hypertension and protects against ovarian and breast cancer.
Breastfeeding does not require any special preparation, does not expose the baby to contaminated water and does not involve any direct financial cost.
It is also recommended that babies should be put to breast within one hour after delivery, breast fed exclusively during their first six months of life and continue to be breast fed and complimented with solid foods until one or two years of age.
Women with higher levels of prolactin (a hormone produced during breastfeeding), may be less likely to develop type 2 diabetes. A study of 8600 American women by Jun Li (Harvard, post-doctoral), found that higher (but still normal) levels of prolactin were associated with a reduced likelihood of developing type 2 diabetes during a follow up period of 20 years.
Prolactin is a multifunction hormone. Not just related to pregnancy and breastfeeding. It also plays an important role in many other biological functions, metabolism, immune regulation, and water balance, said Li in an October 11, 2018 article in Health Day.
According to Eunice Kennedy Shriver, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, research shows that breastfeeding offers many health benefits for infants and mothers; as well as potential economics and environmental benefits for communities. Protection against childhood infections and better survival during a baby’s first year including a lower risk of sudden infant death syndrome.
Highlights from The American Academy of Pediatrics breastfeeding:
- Benefits your baby’s immune system.
- Has all the necessary ingredients in just the right amounts.
- Is very easy to digest.
- Contains antibodies that can fight infection. These are present in colostrum (the first milk that comes out of the breast after birth).
- Antibodies are always in the milk the entire time the mother is nursing.
- Helps in preventing and fighting infections.
- Has probiotic factors – some support the immune system. Some serve as nutrients, source for healthy bacteria in the body called, the human micro biome which plays a life-long role in not only preventing infection but also decreasing the risk of allergies, asthma, obesity and other chronic diseases.
- Breastfeeding is best for both mother and baby.
Here are a few tips:
- Watch for your baby’s signs of hunger and breast feed when your baby is hungry.
- Signs – baby might move their hand to their mouth, make sucking sounds, move towards your breast or cry if they are very hungry.
- Be patient – feed as long as your baby wants to nurse each time. Don’t hurry them.
- Relax while feeding – your milk flows better. Make sure you are comfortable before you start feeding.
- Breastfeeding saves you money. It eliminates the cost of formula.
- This is the perfect time for you and baby to bond and for you to communicate your expressions of love. Your baby will recognize and respond. This bond quite likely will last a lifetime.
Works Cited
Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Childcare Health and Human Development (2018). National Institute of Health. Retrieved (June 2021). https://www.nichd.nih.gov/health/topics/breastfeeding/conditioninfo/benefits
Feldscher, Karen. Why Increasing Breastfeeding prevalence is ‘essential’. (2018). Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health’s Ana Langer. Retrieved (June 2021) from
Langer, Ana. Breastfeeding hormone associated with reduced type 2 diabetes. (2018). Harvard https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/hsph-in-the-news/breastfeeding-hormone-associated-with reduced-type-2-diabetes-risk/
Stevens, Emily, E. et al. A History of Infant Feeding. (Spring 2009).The Journal of Perinatal Education. NCBI. Retrieved (June 2021). https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2684040/
