Why Breastfeeding Matters

For years I looked forward to breastfeeding another baby. More than any other thing, like the baby’s health or having a C-section, I worried that I’d be unable to nurse. For no good reason, of course, I nursed her older sister for 9 months without any problems, but that’s how much it mattered to me.

I know that there a women who don’t or can’t breastfeed their babies. People adopt. A small group of women literally can’t produce enough milk to nourish their newborns. An even larger number want to but don’t know how or don’t get good advice. Modern life makes it hard to breastfeed successfully. Bottles are synonymous with babies-look in any Hallmark store. Women only get 6 weeks of disability after a healthy birth. That’s just the amount of time it takes for breastfeeding to come “naturally”. Next month I’m going to talk more about the “how” of breastfeeding, but today I’m going to discuss why I think it matters.

I’ve talked to many women online about this subject and God forbid if you say anything about a women’s right to choose-choose formula, that is. They’re right, of course. It is their choice to give formula, but I think it’s a bad choice or, at the very least, a less-than-ideal choice. Here’s why:

Breastfeeding is an extension of the womb. Before birth, babies are nourished and protected in the uterus. The antibodies that baby received through mom’s blood now get passed through the breast milk, helping to prevent infection while the baby’s immune system develops. Breast milk is so fine tuned for each baby that the mom of a premature baby will produce milk especially for a preemie’s needs, with extra calories, protein and vitamins.

Breast milk is the original “live food”. It is rich in living white blood cells that help destroy infectious agents. In a recent study, breast milk put on cancer cells killed the cancer cells. Last month’s Mothering magazine had an article about putting breast milk on eyes to fight eye infections. Breast milk contains fatty acids that are essential for brain development, the myelination of neurons that continues until a child is seven. This cannot be duplicated in a can. Breast milk contains over 100 different ingredients that aren’t in formula and the ones that are added to formula are better absorbed from mother’s milk-like iron.

Breastfeeding is personal. Your baby gets to know you better through breastfeeding. Before birth, your baby already recognizes your voice. Studies have shown that newborns prefer the smell of their own mom’s milk over milk from other women. What you eat will affect the smell and taste of your milk, helping baby develop a taste for the foods he or she will later eat. We live in a world where people have become dependant on processed food that is often indistinguishable from one brand to the next. High levels of fat, sugar and salt in foods have created an obese nation with diseases that were once rare: diabetes, cardiovascular disease and high blood pressure, not to mention cancer, are epidemic. Breastfed babies are less likely to develop any of these diseases. Give your baby the gift of a lifetime-good nutrition from the very start.

Breastfeeding is political. Some of you may be old enough to remember the Nestle boycott of the 1970’s (I am, too). Basically, Nestle used shameful marketing practices and gave away enough free formula to women in third-world countries, telling them it was better than breast milk. Their milk dried up. Often, they would use more water to “stretch” the formula or they didn’t have proper sanitation to sterilize bottles. Babies starved. This boycott was restarted in 1988. (For more information, go to www.babymilkaction.org). Moms everywhere have become “Lactivists”, protesting companies that have interfered with a woman’s right to breastfeed. When Barbara Walters and her cohorts on “The View” last year said that breastfeeding was “gross and disgusting”, hundreds of breastfeeding women turned up at ABC studios to protest. Love your body and your baby: breastfeed.