Why I breastfeed
So, I realize that out of the majority of people in this country, I'm pretty weird. It seems to be really obvious now that I'm a parent. All my choices are on display for everyone to see, and comment on. That's really ok with me, but I thought for the curious who aren't commenting, I'd write a bit about the choices I've made in my life regarding parenting and other stuff too, and share a bit about WHY I've made the choices I have. I'll start with breastfeeding, because it's the easiest. :)
When I think about the choices I've made, I tend to go back to the beginning. For breastfeeding, that started pretty much at birth for me. My mother breastfed me til I was two. And my brother til he was 3. And I have early memories of hanging out in the church nursery, and seeing moms come in there to nurse. Of course, at church, there was a mix of moms nursing and using formula. And it never really occurred to me that there was one way that was better than another, just different. But as I grew, I learned that breastfeeding, or rather nursing*, really is better. To put it another way, formula is inferior. But back to my experiences with nursing before I actually had done it myself. I was fortunate to grow up surrounded by friends who also breastfeed. This was part luck, and part cacluated choice on my part. As nursing became more important to me, I chose friends who shared similar values.
But the real reason for this post is to explain why it's important to me. I always thought I could breastfeed, and never thought that I wouldn't or couldn't do it. To me, it was the normal way to feed a baby. And it IS the normal way to feed a baby. So, that's the primary reason I breastfeed: because it's how you feed a baby. However, in the last 50 years or so, man has made a substitute for breastfeeding, so now one doesn't HAVE to breastfeed... or do you? As I learned more about breastfeeding, I learned about all the benefits to the child mother's milk has. Human milk is the perfect food for infants. It has everything in it a human needs to grow healthy and strong.Not only does it contain everything one needs to be healthy, but milk will change composition day to day based on the needs of the infant. And mother's milk never stops being healthy for your child. There is no magical day where your milk becomes "useless". Recent studies have shown that in older babies and toddlers the composition continues to change and adapt to the child. Some docs will tell you that breastmilk doesn't have enough iron in it, and you need to supplement. Not only does breastmilk not have much iron, but it actually has a protien that ties up and loose iron in the milk. This is because E. coli can't live without iron. A healthy baby has enough iron to last through til he starts solids. Trust your body, and your milk. Not only that, but I learned about the ingrediants in a typical can of formula: [Enzymatically Hydrolyzed Reduced Minerals Whey Protein Concentrate (From Cow's Milk), Vegetable Oils (Palm Olein, Soy, Coconut, and High-Oleic Safflower or High-Oleic Sunflower), Lactose, Corn Maltodextrin]- The ingredients in the brackets contains the bulk of the formula- the rest of the ingredients are synthetic vitamins and minerals.- and less than 1.5% of: Potassium Citrate, Potassium Phosphate, Calcium Chloride, Calcium Phosphate, Sodium Citrate, Magnesium Chloride, Ferrous Sulfate, Zinc Sulfate, Sodium Chloride, Copper Sulfate, Potassium Iodide, Manganese Sulfate, M. alpina Oil*, Vitamins (Sodium Ascorbate, Inositol, Choline Bitartrate, Alpha-Tocopheryl Acetate, Niacinamide, Calcium Pantothenate, Riboflavin, Vitamin A Acetate, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Thiamine Mononitrate, Folic Acid, Phylloquinone, Biotin, Vitamin D3, Vitamin B12), C. cohnii Oil**, Taurine, Nucleotides*** (Cytidine 5'-Monophosphate, Disodium Uridine 5'-Monophosphate, Adenosine 5'-Monophosphate, Disodium Guanosine 5'-Monophosphate), L-Carnitine. It's little more than protien powder, sweetener, and a whole host of synthetic vitamins. Protein powder has been indicated in causing heart disease. Also those high oleic oils have WAY too many omega 6 EFAs, and not enough omega 3 EFAs, which also contributes to heart disease. I also learned about how the formula industry has dubious marketing practices. Oh, heck, they're horribly unethical. You know those lil bags they give you as you leave the hosptial? They usually contain a can of forumla and coupons in them. You take that baggie home, and there the formula sits, waiting for you to have a moment of weakness. One little can won't hurt, and at least the baby's fed. Well, one little can WILL hurt your breastfeeding relationship. Not only that, but formula comapanies market to third world countries, where the water supply may be contaminated, and people are too poor to afford formula. So, they try to stretch it by diluting it, causing the infant to not get enough nutrients, where eventually the child dies if first he isn't poisoned by the water used to mix it. No, I'm not making this up: http://www.babymilkaction.org/regs/thecode.html So that's the second reason I breastfeed: it's superior nutrition for V.
Not to mention, infant formula is EXPENSIVE! I about fell over when I glanced at the price in the grocery store. I could calculate the costs of using formula, but at $23 a can for the good stuff, compared to free breast milk, it's really unneccesary to see how much you can save by nursing.
So, beyond the nutritional superiority of breastmilk (which is reason enough right there), there's also the immune benefits. Breastmilk contains white blood cells that the infant takes in, and it protects them from illness. Victoria hasn't been sick in her life, despite (or perhaps because of?- but that's a different post) her mother's relaxed attitude toward germs. :) (I have seen a hint of a sniffle, and I think that she would have come down with something had she not been breastfed.) I've also read something though I can't remember where that your body, in the act of kissing your baby, will pick up germs that are on her face and skin and in her mouth, and your body will produce antibodies to it that go through your milk, so your baby won't get sick! So, that's another reason: to keep V healthier.
Breastfeeding is so much more than just feeding your baby, though. With my milk, I can show V I love her, I can comfort her when she's hurt or scared, and I can lull her to sleep. I could do all of this without mother's milk too, but it's so easy and clear that when she's hurt or sleepy, she likes nursing best of all. When I think about it, it makes sense. Today, V fell down and bumped her head. I ran to comfort her, and she pulled at my shirt, so I nursed her. The act of nursing is one she associates with comfort and love, so I imagine it released some endorphins which made her feel better. Breastmilk also contains compounds in it that make a child drowsy. It's nature's built in baby soother! :)
Another reason I nurse is because it's so easy. I can't imagine having to wake up in the middle of the night, make sure I have sterilized bottles, stumble into the kitchen to whip up a bottle of formula, warm it, and take it back to the baby, feed her (I imagine I'd have to do this sitting up, but maybe I could hold it for her laying down), and then go back to sleep. It's just too much work. With breastfeeding, I can just roll over, put the boob in her mouth, and go back to sleep. (I have to admit, it took me many months before I could nurse in the night without feeling interrupted in my sleep, but it has happened now.)
Beyond all that, there is the issue of facial and jaw formation. The way a baby sucks is different with a breast or a bottle. The breastfed baby has to work harder for his milk. This helps the face and jaw form properly. A baby who uses a bottle too much after his teeth come in is at risk for teeth malformation. (A pacifier carries this same risk.) It's also not recommended to take a bottle to bed, because unlike a breast, a bottle continuously drips, so milk will pool in the baby's mouth, and could cause cavities. A breast doesn't do that. If there is no sucking or stimulation, the milk won't come.
With all these reasons, I can't imagine why anyone WOULDN"T breastfeed! Beyond actual lack of production, or abuse issues, there isn't any reason why one shouldn't at least try. The nursing relationship is very fragile though, in the beginning, and lack of support, lack of knowledge, or active sabotage (feeding bottles of formula, or sugar water in the hospital) can make nursing extremely unneccesarily difficult, or impossible.
One more thing I want to mention. Many women don't nurse because they don't think they make enough milk. I understand how this can be a fear of new nursing mamas. It was one of mine. But there is only one way you can know for sure if your baby is getting enough, and that is to count diapers. If it's going in, it's gonna come out. If your baby nurses every half hour for the first few weeks (or longer), that's not a way to be sure. If your older child isn't pooping every day, that's ok- breastmilk is so efficient at meeting your child's needs, that it's quite common for a baby to go without pooping for days, I think the most I've heard in personal experience is 10 days. If the baby is recieving nothing but breastmilk- no water, nothing, it's impossible for him to be constipated. But I digress. When V was born, the only way I knew my milk had come in was that her poops changed. I never got engorged, I only leaked for a few weeks. I've never felt letdown. I can't pump a drop. Most people might assume that I"m not making milk then, but V has never had a drop of formula. She's 7.5 months old now, and though she's been having solids for about a month now, she has never been supplemented in any other way. So, I must be making enough milk for her, since she's happy and thriving. So, just because you can't pump anything, or you're not leaking or feeling your milk doesn't mean you don't have any. Count diapers, it's the only way. (And wet ones are more important than poopy ones, though newborns will likely poop a lot anyway)
* I prefer to say "nursing" instead of breastfeeding, because the word "breast" in breastfeeding draws attention to the fact that I must use my breasts to feed my baby, which in this culture is mildly scandalous. I'm not "letting my baby suck on my boob", I"m feeding my baby, it just so happens that my breasts are the way to do it. There's a (perhaps subtle) difference.
I also wanted to share some links I've found useful in regards to breastfeeding, here in no particular order:
http://www.vitalsourcemag.com/story/view/100148
http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/8529/BF/language.html
http://www.whenmothersnurse.org/
http://nurseherenow.com/
http://www.banthebags.org/
http://www.mother-2-mother.com/
http://www.babymilkaction.org/boycott/prmachine05.html
http://www.kellymom.com/index.html
When I think about the choices I've made, I tend to go back to the beginning. For breastfeeding, that started pretty much at birth for me. My mother breastfed me til I was two. And my brother til he was 3. And I have early memories of hanging out in the church nursery, and seeing moms come in there to nurse. Of course, at church, there was a mix of moms nursing and using formula. And it never really occurred to me that there was one way that was better than another, just different. But as I grew, I learned that breastfeeding, or rather nursing*, really is better. To put it another way, formula is inferior. But back to my experiences with nursing before I actually had done it myself. I was fortunate to grow up surrounded by friends who also breastfeed. This was part luck, and part cacluated choice on my part. As nursing became more important to me, I chose friends who shared similar values.
But the real reason for this post is to explain why it's important to me. I always thought I could breastfeed, and never thought that I wouldn't or couldn't do it. To me, it was the normal way to feed a baby. And it IS the normal way to feed a baby. So, that's the primary reason I breastfeed: because it's how you feed a baby. However, in the last 50 years or so, man has made a substitute for breastfeeding, so now one doesn't HAVE to breastfeed... or do you? As I learned more about breastfeeding, I learned about all the benefits to the child mother's milk has. Human milk is the perfect food for infants. It has everything in it a human needs to grow healthy and strong.Not only does it contain everything one needs to be healthy, but milk will change composition day to day based on the needs of the infant. And mother's milk never stops being healthy for your child. There is no magical day where your milk becomes "useless". Recent studies have shown that in older babies and toddlers the composition continues to change and adapt to the child. Some docs will tell you that breastmilk doesn't have enough iron in it, and you need to supplement. Not only does breastmilk not have much iron, but it actually has a protien that ties up and loose iron in the milk. This is because E. coli can't live without iron. A healthy baby has enough iron to last through til he starts solids. Trust your body, and your milk. Not only that, but I learned about the ingrediants in a typical can of formula: [Enzymatically Hydrolyzed Reduced Minerals Whey Protein Concentrate (From Cow's Milk), Vegetable Oils (Palm Olein, Soy, Coconut, and High-Oleic Safflower or High-Oleic Sunflower), Lactose, Corn Maltodextrin]- The ingredients in the brackets contains the bulk of the formula- the rest of the ingredients are synthetic vitamins and minerals.- and less than 1.5% of: Potassium Citrate, Potassium Phosphate, Calcium Chloride, Calcium Phosphate, Sodium Citrate, Magnesium Chloride, Ferrous Sulfate, Zinc Sulfate, Sodium Chloride, Copper Sulfate, Potassium Iodide, Manganese Sulfate, M. alpina Oil*, Vitamins (Sodium Ascorbate, Inositol, Choline Bitartrate, Alpha-Tocopheryl Acetate, Niacinamide, Calcium Pantothenate, Riboflavin, Vitamin A Acetate, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Thiamine Mononitrate, Folic Acid, Phylloquinone, Biotin, Vitamin D3, Vitamin B12), C. cohnii Oil**, Taurine, Nucleotides*** (Cytidine 5'-Monophosphate, Disodium Uridine 5'-Monophosphate, Adenosine 5'-Monophosphate, Disodium Guanosine 5'-Monophosphate), L-Carnitine. It's little more than protien powder, sweetener, and a whole host of synthetic vitamins. Protein powder has been indicated in causing heart disease. Also those high oleic oils have WAY too many omega 6 EFAs, and not enough omega 3 EFAs, which also contributes to heart disease. I also learned about how the formula industry has dubious marketing practices. Oh, heck, they're horribly unethical. You know those lil bags they give you as you leave the hosptial? They usually contain a can of forumla and coupons in them. You take that baggie home, and there the formula sits, waiting for you to have a moment of weakness. One little can won't hurt, and at least the baby's fed. Well, one little can WILL hurt your breastfeeding relationship. Not only that, but formula comapanies market to third world countries, where the water supply may be contaminated, and people are too poor to afford formula. So, they try to stretch it by diluting it, causing the infant to not get enough nutrients, where eventually the child dies if first he isn't poisoned by the water used to mix it. No, I'm not making this up: http://www.babymilkaction.org/regs/thecode.html So that's the second reason I breastfeed: it's superior nutrition for V.
Not to mention, infant formula is EXPENSIVE! I about fell over when I glanced at the price in the grocery store. I could calculate the costs of using formula, but at $23 a can for the good stuff, compared to free breast milk, it's really unneccesary to see how much you can save by nursing.
So, beyond the nutritional superiority of breastmilk (which is reason enough right there), there's also the immune benefits. Breastmilk contains white blood cells that the infant takes in, and it protects them from illness. Victoria hasn't been sick in her life, despite (or perhaps because of?- but that's a different post) her mother's relaxed attitude toward germs. :) (I have seen a hint of a sniffle, and I think that she would have come down with something had she not been breastfed.) I've also read something though I can't remember where that your body, in the act of kissing your baby, will pick up germs that are on her face and skin and in her mouth, and your body will produce antibodies to it that go through your milk, so your baby won't get sick! So, that's another reason: to keep V healthier.
Breastfeeding is so much more than just feeding your baby, though. With my milk, I can show V I love her, I can comfort her when she's hurt or scared, and I can lull her to sleep. I could do all of this without mother's milk too, but it's so easy and clear that when she's hurt or sleepy, she likes nursing best of all. When I think about it, it makes sense. Today, V fell down and bumped her head. I ran to comfort her, and she pulled at my shirt, so I nursed her. The act of nursing is one she associates with comfort and love, so I imagine it released some endorphins which made her feel better. Breastmilk also contains compounds in it that make a child drowsy. It's nature's built in baby soother! :)
Another reason I nurse is because it's so easy. I can't imagine having to wake up in the middle of the night, make sure I have sterilized bottles, stumble into the kitchen to whip up a bottle of formula, warm it, and take it back to the baby, feed her (I imagine I'd have to do this sitting up, but maybe I could hold it for her laying down), and then go back to sleep. It's just too much work. With breastfeeding, I can just roll over, put the boob in her mouth, and go back to sleep. (I have to admit, it took me many months before I could nurse in the night without feeling interrupted in my sleep, but it has happened now.)
Beyond all that, there is the issue of facial and jaw formation. The way a baby sucks is different with a breast or a bottle. The breastfed baby has to work harder for his milk. This helps the face and jaw form properly. A baby who uses a bottle too much after his teeth come in is at risk for teeth malformation. (A pacifier carries this same risk.) It's also not recommended to take a bottle to bed, because unlike a breast, a bottle continuously drips, so milk will pool in the baby's mouth, and could cause cavities. A breast doesn't do that. If there is no sucking or stimulation, the milk won't come.
With all these reasons, I can't imagine why anyone WOULDN"T breastfeed! Beyond actual lack of production, or abuse issues, there isn't any reason why one shouldn't at least try. The nursing relationship is very fragile though, in the beginning, and lack of support, lack of knowledge, or active sabotage (feeding bottles of formula, or sugar water in the hospital) can make nursing extremely unneccesarily difficult, or impossible.
One more thing I want to mention. Many women don't nurse because they don't think they make enough milk. I understand how this can be a fear of new nursing mamas. It was one of mine. But there is only one way you can know for sure if your baby is getting enough, and that is to count diapers. If it's going in, it's gonna come out. If your baby nurses every half hour for the first few weeks (or longer), that's not a way to be sure. If your older child isn't pooping every day, that's ok- breastmilk is so efficient at meeting your child's needs, that it's quite common for a baby to go without pooping for days, I think the most I've heard in personal experience is 10 days. If the baby is recieving nothing but breastmilk- no water, nothing, it's impossible for him to be constipated. But I digress. When V was born, the only way I knew my milk had come in was that her poops changed. I never got engorged, I only leaked for a few weeks. I've never felt letdown. I can't pump a drop. Most people might assume that I"m not making milk then, but V has never had a drop of formula. She's 7.5 months old now, and though she's been having solids for about a month now, she has never been supplemented in any other way. So, I must be making enough milk for her, since she's happy and thriving. So, just because you can't pump anything, or you're not leaking or feeling your milk doesn't mean you don't have any. Count diapers, it's the only way. (And wet ones are more important than poopy ones, though newborns will likely poop a lot anyway)
* I prefer to say "nursing" instead of breastfeeding, because the word "breast" in breastfeeding draws attention to the fact that I must use my breasts to feed my baby, which in this culture is mildly scandalous. I'm not "letting my baby suck on my boob", I"m feeding my baby, it just so happens that my breasts are the way to do it. There's a (perhaps subtle) difference.
I also wanted to share some links I've found useful in regards to breastfeeding, here in no particular order:
http://www.vitalsourcemag.com/story/view/100148
http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/8529/BF/language.html
http://www.whenmothersnurse.org/
http://nurseherenow.com/
http://www.banthebags.org/
http://www.mother-2-mother.com/
http://www.babymilkaction.org/boycott/prmachine05.html
http://www.kellymom.com/index.html