When considering the baby’s health, breastfeeding is the best nutrition ever on the earth.
A mother needs to be conscious about her baby’s health; especially for newborns. This article helps to know that what is safe and what is not safe for breastfeeding?
Let’s know the tips to keep babies healthy.
When a married woman becomes the first-time mother and takes her baby in her arms, at that time there is no boundary for her happiness.
She feels so proud of herself to become a mother.
And when she first time feeds her newborn baby she thinks that she has heavenly blessed.
Feeding her baby should be the first priority for every mother. When a mother gives birth to a newborn, the doctors immediately instruct her to start feeding.
With this, every mother should know how her breast milk plays a vital and important role in her baby’s health and development?
So, I would like to bring your attention to certain useful tips including the advantages and disadvantages of breastfeeding that will help you in your initial stage as a mother.
Advantages of Breastfeeding for a baby 8and mother:
Babies should nurse Breast-milk from their mother for at least up to 6 months; no other foods should be given to them. Not only breastfeeding is better and healthier for babies, but also a mother can be benefited from this. Breastfeeding is very helpful for both baby and mother. Let’s discuss some of the advantages that every mother should know.
- Gives Nutrition
- Build Immune System
- Easily digest
- Helps to baby’s growth and development
- Protects from any illness and infections
- Improves brain and nervous system
- Reduces dental problems
- Bonding with mother and family members
- Decreases probability of sudden infant death syndrome
- Free of cost
Let’s go through for details.
1. Gives Nutrition
Nutrition is important for everyone. Breast milk is the best nutritional choice for babies. It is a perfect combination of proteins, calcium, vitamins, water, fat, carbohydrate, minerals, etc. These are all necessary to keep the baby healthy and become strong internally. When newborns start to feed on their mothers; they start to consume nutrition into their bodies.
2. Build Immune System
Breastfeed babies have a stronger immune system. Breast milk has immunity-enhancing antibodies which help to fight against any diseases. Colostrum or yellow milk which flows from the mother’s breast during the first time feeding to her baby has full of antibodies that help to build immunity of the baby. So mother milk is essential for every child.
3. Easily Digest
Mother’s milk is like god’s gift to her baby. Not only it gives protein and nutrition to her baby, but also easily digests. As babies need to feed on their mothers very frequently; it is necessary to digest to feed more. Breast milk is digested in a very shorter time as it contains enzymes that aid digestion.
4. Helps to Baby’s Growth and Development
Mother’s milk can help make babies smarter and stronger. The growth and development of a baby depend on proper nutrition that only gets from mother’s milk. It helps to provide an adequate supply of many different notional factors such as energy, protein, iron, zinc, vitamins, etc to the baby’s body. Mother’s milk is constantly changing its composition day by day which helps babies for their growth and development.
5. Protects from any Illness and Infections
Breastmilk provides a lifelong advantage of decreasing the risk of many diseases such as ear problems, respiratory, diarrhea, constipation, etc. Mother’s milk has full of immunological and antimicrobial agents which protect her baby against any diseases and allergies as infections can easily affect babies. So, a mother should always clean her nipple, breasts before feeding her baby.
6. Improves Brain and Nervous System
There is a very positive relationship between breastfeeding and brain development. Breastfeeding babies have a strong nervous system as well as their brains can become sharper. It has certain non-nutrient ingredients including enzymes and hormones which help to the rapid development of the brain and nervous system.
7. Reduces Dental Problems
It has always proven that mother’s milk has different kinds of vitamins which help to fight against any illness and it also reduces dental problems. Breastfeeding babies have fewer dental problems than bottle-feeding babies. Although breastfeeding children can get cavities, Breastmilk alone does not appear to be the cause. Foods or Breast milk tend to be the main problems.
8. Bonding with Mother
Breastfeed also promotes closeness between the mother and her baby. When a baby is nursing from breast can focus on her mother’s face, allowing eye contact and visual communication between them. The mother can give her full attention to her baby by talking and singing during feeding.
9. Decreases Probability of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS):
Sudden Infant Death Syndrome is also known as crib death which is sudden and unexplained. It may happen during sleep with no warning sign or a clear reason for seemingly healthy babies less than one-year-old. The research has shown that breastfeeding reduces the risk of SIDS at an early age of babies. Breast milk has the power to reduce the cause of SIDS which is really panic for every mother.
Advantages of Breastfeeding for a Mother
A nursing mother is also get benefited from breastfeeding. Let’s know certain advantages.
- Breastfeeding reduces the risk of breast cancer in a mother.
- Breastfeeding reduces the risk of uterine and ovarian cancer.
- Breastfeeding helps to lose weight of a mother after pregnancy
- Breastfeeding helps to release good hormones to a mother’s body
- Breastfeeding may result in less diabetes
- Breastfeeding helps birth spacing.
- Breastfeeding helps to long-term health effects
Disadvantages of Breastfeeding
We also hear the advantages of breastfeeding, but we never think that there might b some disadvantages that we don’t know or we ignore
- Babies feed more often
- Uncomfortable and painful
- Only you can feed, no one else
- Reduces sexual desire
- Publicly it’s not easy to feed
- Don’t know exactly how much baby is getting
- Need special cloth for feeding
Let’s discuss in elaborate.
i. Babies feed more often
As babies feed frequently at any time it causes frustration for a mother; especially at night.
ii. Uncomfortable and painful
When a mother feeds her baby for the first time, she feels uncomfortable and it can cause pain because babies suck milk from the nipple as it is a very sensitive organ. Sometimes they bite their mother’s nipple. But a mother should not get rid of breastfeeding her baby.
iii. Only you can feed, no one else
A mother is the only one who can feed her baby, no one else can do. So anytime a baby needs her mother to be with her.
iv. Reduces sexual desire
While a mother is starting to feed her baby, her body produces less estrogen (a type of hormone) level which may cause less interest in sex. Estrogen level is very low while breastfeeding.
v. Publicly it’s not easy to feed
There is no time for feeding a baby. Anywhere and anytime they require feed. Especially breastfeed babies, a mother is always ready for them. But it is not easy to feed them anywhere, especially in public places. Mother is feeling very embarrassed when her baby is wanted to breastfeed in public. So this moment is very tuff for every mother.
vi. Don’t know exactly how much baby is getting
If a baby is feeding on the bottle a mother can measure how much he/she can get. But in the case of breastfeeding babies, a mother can’t know exactly how much her baby is getting whether he/she is getting sufficient milk from her or not.
vii. Need special clothing for feeding
For breastfeeding a baby, it is required a mother to have special clothing which is very costly and it is not possible to afford for everybody.
At Last…
It is always true saying that a mother’s milk is the best food for a baby. It doesn’t require any preparation, sterilization.
This is the best gift you can give your child for their better health and development.
Breastfeeding is always necessary for newborns as well as infants who are at age of one month or one year. So mothers should be very attentive and give first priority to feed their babies from time to time.
Read this article about, different breastfeeding positions that will teach you how to take care of your baby’s health.
Not only mother’s milk helps to give proper development to her baby but also keeps bonding with her and others in a healthy atmosphere.
A baby’s health is very precious. Not only the mother but also everyone who is attached to the baby always tries to keep the baby safe and healthy giving her better nutrition.