I’m in OB clinical right now and I’m surprised in how many people aren’t breastfeeding their newborns. Maybe it’s me being old fashioned but I strongly believe that women should breastfeed their children. There are so many benefits to both the mother and baby regarding breastfeeding.
Pros for the mom: YOU LOSE WEIGHT a hellova lot faster than if you bottle-feed (yay for the dad too b/c he’ll soon have his hot wife back). You’re less likely to develop osteoporosis, breast/uterine/ovarian cancer, you and your baby bond through breastfeeding, it’s more economical than buying formula & bottles (that shit is expensive!), when the baby poops it’s a whole lot less and a whole lot less stinky.
Pros for the baby: the baby is way less likely to be overweight/obese when he/she grows up, less ear infections in childhood, decreased chance of diabetes and cardiovascular disease. The baby will acquire maternal antibodies (immune protection) and breast milk actually adapts to fit the ever-changing needs of the baby
Dr. Frank Oski, the former Department Head of Pediatrics at John Hopkins University School of Medicine and a guy who really knows his Peds/OB stuff said:
“One of our concerns is that even though formula-fed infants appear to grow normally, are they really thriving? Thriving means more than just getting bigger. It means developing to the child’s fullest physical, emotional, and intellectual potential. We just don’t know about all the long-term effects of tampering with Mother Nature – though we do know that there are significant health differences between formula-fed and breastfed infants. Human milk is a live substance containing live white blood cells and immune-fighting substances, and is a dynamic, changing nutritional source, which daily (sometimes hourly) adjusts to meet the individual needs of a growing baby. Formulas are nothing more than a collection of dead nutrients. They do not contain living white cells, digestive enzymes, or immune factors. In terms of human history, they are a new experiment. The good news is that formula companies are constantly updating their recipe in order to keep up with new research into infant nutrition. The bad news is that each change in formula is really just a new experiment”.
I don’t understand why women don’t choose to breastfeed. It baffles me. Maybe it’s because society is stigmatizing a natural process or maybe it’s just families becoming lazy, either way, there has to be a change because America is definitely not changing for the better health wise…
