BREASTFEEDING 101, OR

WHY BREAST IS BEST

Through Birth Blessings, Aimee provides breastfeeding education, assistance, and support. Aimee is an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant (IBCLC) (to read what that mouthful means, click here The International Board of Lactation Consultant Examiners), and has been in private practice for over five years in that capacity. In 1996, she was certified by La Leche League International, Inc. as a lay breastfeeding counselor (aka "a La Leche League Leader"). Aimee's knowledge about breastfeeding is not just from books, however; she nursed all three of her children.

Saying "Breast is Best" is not an opinion or an attempt to be trendy: For more than 50 years, La Leche League International has been at the forefront on this important issue, and the scientific and medical communities are now providing the research to back what the wise women of La Leche League have been saying for all these years.

Extensive research, especially in recent years, documents diverse and compelling advantages to infants, mothers, families, and society from breastfeeding and the use of human milk for infant feeding. Among these advantages are health, nutritional, immunologic, developmental, psychological, social, economic, and environmental benefits.

Human milk is uniquely superior for feeding human babies (duh? right - you're not trying to raise a baby cow or a baby soybean!); all substitute feeding options differ markedly from it and are simply worse. Breastmilk is THE GOLD STANDARD for human babies. The breastfed infant is the reference or normative model against which all alternative feeding methods must be measured with regard to growth, health, development, and all other short- and long-term outcomes.

Epidemiologic research shows that human milk and breastfeeding of infants provide advantages with regard to general health, growth, and development, while significantly decreasing risk for a large number of acute and chronic diseases. Research in the United States, Canada, Europe, and other developed countries, among predominantly middle-class populations, provides strong evidence that human milk feeding decreases the incidence and/or severity of diarrhea, lower respiratory infection, otitis media (ear infections), bacteremia (bacteria-caused infections in the blood), bacterial meningitis (a potentially life-threatening illness), botulism, urinary tract infection, and necrotizing enterocolitis (another potentially life-threatening condition). A number of studies show a possible protective effect of human milk feeding against sudden infant death syndrome, insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus, Crohn's disease, ulcerative colitis, lymphoma, allergic diseases, and other chronic digestive diseases. Breastfeeding has also been related to enhancement of cognitive development.

If all that were not reason enough to breastfeed your baby, many studies show breastfeeding benefits mother's health as well. It has long been acknowledged that breastfeeding increases levels of oxytocin, resulting in less postpartum bleeding and more rapid uterine involution (the process of the uterus returning to its pre-pregnant size and state). Lactational amenorrhea causes less menstrual blood loss over the months after delivery. Recent research demonstrates that lactating women have an earlier return to prepregnant weight, delayed resumption of ovulation with increased child spacing, improved bone remineralization postpartum with reduction in hip fractures in the postmenopausal period, and reduced risk of ovarian cancer and premenopausal breast cancer.

In addition to the individual health benefits to the breastfeeding mom and her nursling, breastfeeding provides significant social and economic benefits to the nation, including reduced health care costs and reduced employee absenteeism for care attributable to child illness. The significantly lower incidence of illness in the breastfed infant allows the parents more time for attention to siblings and other family duties and reduces parental absence from work and lost income. The direct economic benefits to the family are also significant. A family could easily save $500. or more by simply not buying baby's food, but rather taking advantage of what the good Lord provided. Hey! It's free and it comes in attractive containers! It's always at the right temperature, no scrubbing/sterilizing/driving to the store at $3.00 a gallon to buy more. If mom's around, you've got milk!

But don't take my word for it, read the entirety of the AAP's policy statement by clicking on the link below.

2005 American Academy of Pediatrics Policy Statement on Breastfeeding and Human Milk

1. In 2005, 67% of American women feel that breastfeeding is the best way to feed a baby. This is up 7% from 2004’s 60%.
2. 62% of American men feel that breastfeeding is best—up 12% from a 50% figure in 2004.
3. 59% of women felt that babies should be breastfed exclusively for the first 6 months of life; this is up 4% from 55% of women in 2004.
4. 65% of American males believe a baby should be breastfed exclusively for the first 6 months of life; this is up 12% from a 53% figure in 2004.
5. 69% of men stated they would be comfortable seeing a woman breastfeed in public. This is up 10% from 2004’s 59%.
6. 63% of men are now comfortable with their wife breastfeeding in public. This represents a 10% increase over the 53% acceptance rate by men in 2004.

All breastfeeding advocates agree that dad’s support of breastfeeding is critical for both the initiation and duration of breastfeeding. Let’s pray for another big increase in the next year!

TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THE IMPORTANCE OF BREASTFEEDING TO PREMATURE BABIES, click on the link below.

Breastmilk is Best for Development of Preemies Brains

To set up a lactation consultation in the Northern Virginia area, contact me at 703.440.5888

Aimee
aimee@birthblessings.com