Introduction To Breastfeeding For You And Baby

Breastfeeding allows you to provide your baby with all it needs for growth and development. Breast milk not only contains all the nutrients your baby needs, in an easily digested form, but it also contains antibodies to guard your baby from all kinds of infection.

There are substances in breast milk, that cannot be reproduced. You single-handedly can give these living factors for your baby. Breastfeeding is a very helpful thing to do. It is not merely beneficial for your baby, it is good for you. The advantages are many.

The major advantages of breastfeeding for your baby:

• Breast milk is the only food specially designed, by nature, to meet your baby's individual needs.

• It contains the right balance of nutrients in a very easily digestible form.

• Antibodies are passed on through breast milk to defend your baby from all kinds of infection. The longer you can feed your newborn the better but if you breastfeed for the first three or four months this protection can last for up to a year.

• Your baby is much less likely to need to be admitted to hospital.

• Your baby is less likely to develop diarrhoea or constipation.

• Breastfeeding reduces the incidence of allergies such as eczema and asthma.

• Breast milk contains growth factors and hormones to help your baby's development. These cannot be reproduced in formula milk. Children who have breast fed for eight months or more have been shown to achieve more at school than those who have been bottle fed.

The Big advantages of breastfeeding for a Mum:

• Breastfeeding helps your body to get back to it's original shape, and in some cases better shape - burns up to 500 calories a day.

• Breast milk is free

• Mothers who breastfeed typically feel a special link with their newborn baby and can be much less likely to be affected by postnatal depression.

• Breastfeeding can possibly give you a safe-guard against developing ovarian cancer, breast cancer and hip fractures.

The main disadvantages of breastfeeding for Mum:

• Viruses such as hepatitis B or HIV and some medication can be passed on to your baby in breast milk.

• Mother may find breastfeeding tricky work, it may them worry, is can be worrying and it is tiring

• While you are breastfeeding it's really quite impossible to know amount of breast milk your baby has eaten, this can be a disadvantage if your baby is having problems putting on weight - if you choose to have a bottle fed baby this is never a problem

• It can be difficult for a breastfeeding mother to leave her baby for more than a couple of hours as no one else can feed baby unless she leaves expressed milk

Most women can breastfeed, but many do run into issues. Always ask for help.
Breastfeeding can take a number of weeks to establish properly with your baby. Once breastfeeding is established the majority of mothers find breastfeeding easy and fun.