Breastfeeding
Breastfeeding
I chose breastfeeding because I find its benefits fascinating. If I would have known all of its benefits when my son was an infant, I would have pushed myself harder to get it to work for the both of us. My son had no problems latching on and had no problems going from bottle to breast if needed while I was out and my son was babysat. However, I did not make a lot of milk and my son was always hungry. I did not receive a lot of nutritional guidance on breastfeeding. I was told “If I was nourished then I’d make enough milk”. However, even when I felt I ate enough I still did not make enough milk. To this day, I am not sure if I had a thyroid problem at that point as I do now and whether or not it would have played a role. I also am not sure if I drank enough water or ate enough nourishing foods. My family was supportive of my breastfeeding; however, they felt he wasn’t getting enough and pushed me towards bottle feeding.
Breastmilk is the most complete form of nutrition for kids. It has a range of benefits for health, growth, immunity and development. The World Health Organization recommends breastfeeding for at least 6 months and even up to 2 years. Breastmilk is easy to digest. It’s a perfect balance of protein, fat, carbohydrates and nutrients. It also supplies antibodies, probiotics, hormones and growth factors. It also has oligosaccharides which are special carbs that encourage growth of friendly bacteria in the digestive system and cytokines which are
which are special carbs that are involved in cell communication and immune system immune system formation. Breastfeeding decreases the risk of SIDS, infant mortality rates, eczema, asthma, food allergies, infections, tooth decay, obesity and type 1 and type 2 diabetes.
Last week I wrote about England and the support new mothers get with health care professionals frequently stopping in to check on mother and baby. However, the UK has poor social attitudes that deter women from breastfeeding more than a few weeks. There is a stigma to enforce routines such as sleeping through the night as well as negative perceptions about women breastfeeding in public. There is also little to no support for breastfeeding in the workplace. Many women begin to breastfeed but abandon breastfeeding either because of difficulties getting the baby to latch on difficulties due to sore or painful breasts. The UK has one of the lowest rates of breastfeeding despite the positive medical impacts on infants. In the UK, 1 baby in 3 is breastfed at 6 months and that falls to 1 in 200 at 12 months. Seventy five percent of new mothers begin to breastfeed within 2 months; however, only 34% are doing it at 6 months. This is in comparison to 49% in the US and 71% in Norway. For a country with great at home post-natal support; it has a great deal of catching up to do in terms of breastfeeding.
Now when I meet with families whose children seem to present great difficulty with cognitive tasks or fine motor tasks as well as high absenteeism due to illness in my first-grade classroom, I might begin to ask these families whether or not they breastfed their child during infancy. After completing this research this might be a contributing factor on students cognitive and fine motor abilities as well as the ability to fight off illnesses they are exposed to at school.
Retrieved from: https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2017/aug/01/uk-attitudes-to-breastfeeding-must-change-say-experts
Retrieved from: https://happyfamilybrands.com/blog/help_article/breast-milk-benefits/?gclid=CjwKCAjw4avaBRBPEiwA_ZetYsbqGgRCEnm113kO8UKcpm3KIFdHTVtW6ZB2rpzamTvK-Z_n95Tv-RoCT0kQAvD_BwE
Wow, thank you for providing such insight on a topic I know very little about! That is so interesting about England. I know that it has been difficult for some mothers to nurse in public here in the states where it is somewhat accepted I can't imagine what it must be like for mothers in England. Thank you for sharing.
ReplyDeleteWhile I knew there were benefits of breast feeding (and tried very hard with my daughter), I did not realize how great that impact is to future development. I too was unable to produce enough milk no matter how I changed my diet or encouraged her to feed frequently. I was mostly concerend with infantcy and early development, however I had to discontinue around 6 months. Thank you for the information and insight. It is also interesting to see how the UK is so very strict in this case, especially with the noted benefits. I wonder how the stigma of breastfeeding in public can be dimished so that our children are receiving the best care we can provide.
ReplyDeleteGood Evening Jill,
ReplyDeleteI can definitely relate to your story 100% as I too suffered from a similar situation. I knew a good deal about the benefits of breast feeding and my mother also promoted healthy breastfeeding, however, it seemed to myself (similar to your story), that I was not able to produce fast enough to meet the demand, lol. I became very discouraged and gave up early on (after 4-6 weeks) due to the lactation not properly taking place. Before I started breast-feeding, I remember my mother initially tried to tell me all the benefits to feeding your child; one of which was attachment and bonding with my baby. I must say, that when the initial and subsequent breastfeeding didn't happen like I expected, I did ponder if the attachment would initially suffer. I can happily report that I found multiple ways to attach and bond with all of my 5 daughters, but I still wonder to this day what it would have been like to experience the full breastfeeding bonding in a positive way.