Overview | How to start | Benefits | Signs of good breast-feeding | Positions

Storing of Breast-milk | Combating problems | Drugs and Breast-Milk

Helpful hints | Resources | Organizations & Websites

Benefits:
There are many benefits to breast-feeding for both the mother and the child. Breast-milk is made for human babies, cow's milk for baby cows. As much as formulas try to emulate breast-milk, there are just some things that can't be reproduced. It's hard to emulate perfection. Whenever a person is exposed to illness, their bodies respond by forming antibodies and immunoglobulins against these infections. This immunity is in the breast-milk. So, babies who are breast-fed will get fewer infections and when they do get infections, they will be much less severe than if the child was formula fed. Breast-fed babies also get less allergies, asthma and eczema. The breast-milk is easy to digest, produces loose, easily passable stools, and is always readily available and sterile. Nothing is as comforting to a baby as the close physical contact of breast-feeding. The mother benefits as well. A breast-fed mother will produce a hormone called oxytocin, which will help the uterus to shrink to its pre-pregnancy size quickly and avoid bleeding. The food is always ready, available and sterile, so making a bottle while a baby is fussing is not an issue. Breast-feeding helps the mother lose weight and get back to pre-pregnancy weight quicker. Breast-feeding can prevent breast cancer, ovarian cancer, and hip fractures by helping to improve bone remineralization after birth. It can also aid in birth control for the first six months. Also if you start bottle-feeding, you can't go to breast-feeding, because the milk will have dried up. However, it's easy to go from breast-feeding to bottle if necessary.

Overview | How to start | Benefits | Signs of good breast-feeding | Positions

Storing of Breast-milk | Combating problems | Drugs and Breast-Milk

Helpful hints | Resources | Organizations & Websites

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