Breast milk is the very best nutrition that you can first offer your baby. There are so many benefits to breastfeeding. It decreases the risk of obesity, it helps fight disease and build up your child’s immune system and its much easier to digest that formula. There are benefits for mommy as well. First of all it’s much cheaper than formula (it’s FREE), it creates a bond with the baby and is linked to lower risk of breast and ovarian cancer. Nursing also helps mommy lose weight after pregnancy. For mothers who nurse exclusively and on demand, breastfeeding can even serve as a form of birth control.
Did you know that breastfeeding is also biblical? Here are a few examples:
Song of Solomon 8:1, NIV If only you were to me like a brother, who was nursed at my mother’s breasts! Then, if I found you outside, I would kiss you, and no one would despise me.
Psalm 22:9 NIV Yet you brought me out of the womb; you made me trust in you, even at my mother’s breast.
Isaiah 49:15, NIV Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you!
I understand that some women try breastfeeding and due to initial discomfort opt not to keep at it. I encourage you to try again. If you need help there are lactation consultants at the hospital, at the state health department (WIC clinic) and free organizations that will assist you. It gets so much easier with a little time and its worth it.
Your breast milk is specially made just for your bab, and as your baby’s nutritional needs change, your breast milk changes too. Did you know that breast milk could help your baby’s brain development? And research has found that breastfed babies perform better on some intelligence tests.
Resources:
La Leche League – free organization that offers support for nursing moms
Breastfeeding.com – all the information you need on breastfeeding
