Breastfeeding Information
WHY BREASTFEED?
I could write a book on this topic, there are so many wonderful reasons to breastfeed. But, I'll spare you the book and just summarize some of the most important benefits.
Body
Breastfeeding is healthier both for your baby and for you.
When you breastfeed, your baby will have a lower risk of developing many conditions, throughout childhood and adulthood, including:
- Asthma
- Type I diabetes
- Heart disease
- Ear infections
- Allergies
- Childhood leukemia
- Hodgkins disease
- Breast cancer
- Crohn's disease
- Ulcerative colitis
- Multiple Sclerosis
- Meningitis
- SIDS
Overall, formula-fed babies have a 25% higher risk of infant death than breastfed babies (another way of saying this is that breastfeeding reduces the risk of infant mortality by 20%). In the US, approximately 4 babies out of every 1000 will die because they were formula fed (breastfeeding would have prevented or lessened the condition, preventing these deaths).
When you breastfeed,
you will lower your risk of many conditions, including:
- Breast cancer
- Endometrial cancer
- Ovarian cancer
- Osteoporosis
- Postpartum hemorrhage
MindBreastfeeding leads to a sense of well-being both for you and for your baby, and also helps develop your baby's intelligence.
- Relax: Nursing calms babies, as sucking, being held, and certain components of breastmilk all have a calming effect. Less known is the fact that nursing calms moms, too! Prolactin, the major breastfeeding hormone, has a calming effect, which means that breastfeeding moms experience a natural stress reducer. It also helps you ease back into sleep after feeding your baby in the middle of the night, a great benefit for people like me who have difficulty falling asleep.
- Bond: Prolactin also helps you bond to your baby. Along with other hormones released while nursing, it makes you feel closer to your baby, more at ease with mothering, and more fulfilled by your new role.
- Learn: Breastmilk grows your baby's brain - breastfed babies have higher IQs than formula fed babies, at an average of ten points (or about 10%).
LifestyleBreastfeeding is just plain easy. For many breastfeeding pairs, it starts off as a challenge, but most moms find that within a couple weeks it is completely smooth sailing, and they notice these lifestyle benefits:
- Immediately available: Nothing to prepare, it's always ready.
- Portable: No bottles, formula, water to pack in your diaper bag.
- Fragrant: While not a rose in bloom exactly, breastfed spit-up and poopy diapers are much less foul smelling.
PlanetManufacturing formula is an unnecessary use of the planet's resources, from feeding the cows, to the energy the manufacturing plants use and the pollution they create in processing the formula and its containers, to the disposal of the containers. All that, when your body could be doing it simply and naturally!
Sources:
"101 Reasons to Breastfeed your Child" by Leslie Burby. ProMoM, Inc.
