Breastfeeding 101 - Why Breastfeed?

BabyPoints: 4169
Posts: 184
10/28/11 1:25 A

I love breastfeeding. I agree as some ladies say "Breast is best." I believe so for many reasons: 1) convenience 2) natural 3) healthy 4) always the right temperature 5) supply and demand 6) little clean up 7) ingredients already mixed and measure appropriately unlike manufacturing formula with such and such ingredient. I love nursing in bed--I co sleep most nights. I enjoy feeding and going to bed without having to measure, warm, clean a bottle for baby. Breastfeeding was done long ago and there's a reason why people still do it. :) I encourage it! :)

Posts: 17
8/6/10 1:47 P

Very informational! So many good reasons to breastfeed! And with my frist child whom i did not breastfeed, had developed RSV, which turned into bronchialitis, and we were in the hopsital week;y because of it, he had sooooo many ear infections we had to put tubes in his ears after him basically getting immuned to the antibiotics. So with feeling so bad and watching him sufffer as much as he did, i want to be strong in breastfeeding my baby girl.

Posts: 1067
11/8/09 1:41 P

the list was very interesting.

BabyPoints: 5169
Posts: 174
7/28/08 1:29 P

Thank you for starting this message board. I am expecting my first baby in November and I would like to exclusively nurse for 6 months.

Unfortunately, I can't really rely on helpful information from my family because I am in the first generation (for the past 3 generations- on both sides- all babies in my family were bottle fed) to nurse and all my relatives that are nursing or have nursed don't live in the US.

I know it won't be easy. From what I've heard, to make it easier, I should request to be woken up for every feeding when I am in the hospital and I should request to hold the baby immediately after it is cleaned, so that we can bond as early as possible.

I am looking for as many tips as possible to make nursing a positive experience.

*Sabrinafaith*


Edited by: SABRINAFAITH at: 7/28/2008 (13:29)

Posts: 9707
12/13/07 1:21 P

I don't like the wording choice, either. I almost recopied the entire list in order to fix the wording and also to combine a few of the items that I found to be repetitive. (I don't know how many different ways they can say that nursing is convenient, for example!) But it was taking soo much time to recreate the list that I decided to just stick with what they had. They do have a pretty complete list with references.

Hopefully, the mommies here will put the appropriate spin on the information and not get too upset if they plan to give formula or supplement.

I really am trying to be supportive in these topics and trying to take extremism out as much as possible, but a lot of the support out there for breast feeding is worded strongly.

BabyPoints: 593
Posts: 36
12/13/07 12:23 P

I just read the list of 101 reasons to BF. All the reasons are good. However, I would like to point out one thing that irked me. I don't think that NOT breastfeeding increases your chances of anything, but it can defiantely lower them. I noticed some of the wording can be scary to young mothers who are relying on good information to make the decision to BF.

Posts: 9707
12/5/07 4:45 P

Why Breastfeed?

I'm starting with this question, not to try to strong arm anyone, but to provide information and encouragement. I don't know about other moms, but when I was going through some rough times early on, I would re-read the benefits of breastfeeding and I would think, “I can do this for my son, at least for a little longer.”

This link has the most comprehensive list of the benefits of breastfeeding that I have found:

http://www.promom.org/101/index.
html


As I said in my introduction, I'm not going to reinvent the wheel when there are already perfectly good articles in existence. The link I gave you above gives 101 reasons to breastfeed (a few of them are a little repetitive, but bear with them). They provide citations and references for all of their information.

I do want to spend a moment to talk to you about statistical averages. I sometimes hear people say that formula has to be as good as breast milk because their neighbor's breastfed baby was sicker than their formula fed baby. It would be a mistake to judge the effectiveness of breastfeeding in any of the categories listed on the basis of a person to person comparison or even a small group comparison. The statistics gathered for this list come from studies involving hundreds of thousands of women and babies across the nation and in some cases, the world. They do not mean that your breastfed baby will be perfect or always healthy – they mean that your odds are better.

I also wanted to spend a moment talking about these benefits in regards to two special cases: supplementing and pumping.

First, please be advised that even if you cannot fully breastfeed, ANY amount of breast milk is good. I cannot emphasize this enough. The more the better, but ANY amount is good. You can nurse once a day and be getting some benefits. Many of these benefits work on a kind of sliding scale. Here's a reference....one I will definitely be using again.

http://www.kellymom.com/bf/weani
ng/weaning-partial.html


Second, I want to emphasize that most of the benefits of the milk for the baby come from the milk itself. I will talk about pumping at work and about exclusive pumping later on, but rest assured that if you end up in that situation, that you are still providing a great benefit for your baby. A lot of the convenience disappears and this is a hard road to travel, but it's healthy and good for your baby. (I hope someone out there will be able to help me with this option when the topic comes up.)

There are times when the world is not perfect and when factors out of your control may not allow breastfeeding to be the right option for you. Certainly, there can even be health concerns on the part of the mother that would make it a worse option – such as if you need to take medicine that is unsafe for the baby. I leave it to each of you to decide what is right for you and for your family. For those of you who are still undecided, stick with me. I have many topics planned and will do my best to address as many concerns as possible. If I miss your concern, please let me know!

I expect to have the next installment, "Getting Started," up early next week.

And now, the thread is open for questions and comments!