What are the benefits of breastfeeding?
Breastfeeding has many benefits for your baby. Breast milk is rich in nutrients. It has antibodies, which help protect your baby against infections. It also helps prevent your baby from having allergies. Babies who are breastfed are less likely to become overweight, develop diabetes, or get childhood leukemia later in life.
Breastfeeding also has benefits for you. It's clean and simple– you don't have to wash bottles or mix formula. It's cheaper than using formula. It helps your uterus contract back to normal size after having been stretched during pregnancy. It delays the return of your periods (although you shouldn't count on it to prevent pregnancy). And it helps make time for you to be close to your baby. Women who breastfeed also have lower risks of type 2 diabetes, breast cancer, ovarian cancer, high blood pressure, and heart disease.
A few things you should know about breastfeeding
- Understand supply and demand concept
- Drink a lot of water
- Follow strictly your pumping schedule
- Eat healthy
- Stay positive and avoid stress
Understand Supply And Demand Concept
Breastfeeding is a supply-and-demand system. The more demand on the system through breastfeeding the baby, the more milk the body makes.
Occasionally, nature’s system is imperfect. Sometimes the body takes a day or two to catch up to a baby’s increased breastfeeding demand during a growth spurt. And while a mother sometimes can make that extra milk, sometimes she can’t.
Women who can’t produce enough milk to satisfy their babies may have physiological problems, such as breast injury or surgery, polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS), thyroid or other hormonal imbalances, or underdeveloped milk-producing glands, says Emily Healy, lactation consultant with Puget Sound Breastfeeding Services.
Other issues that interfere with a mother’s milk production include the infant’s separation from the mother or from the breast, no assistance for initial feeds and interruption of breastfeeding efforts, says Barbara Orcutt, R.N., a lactation consultant for Birth and Beyond in Seattle. Introducing formula or exclusively expressing milk by pumping instead of nursing can also reduce the amount of milk a mother is able to produce while breastfeeding, she says.
Making ‘supply and demand’ work
1. Breastfeed exclusively. Erin Briggs, a La Leche League leader from South Seattle says, “Nurse early, nurse often! Nurse your baby as soon after birth as possible and nurse at least 10 times every 24 hours until your baby has regained its birth weight.” Pumping exclusively will not provide the same “demand” that a breastfeeding baby does.
2. Look for signs. “The best way to determine if your baby is getting enough is to look at output,” says Briggs. “What goes in comes out. You should see six very wet diapers and at least one fair-sized stool each day in the early weeks.”
3. Refuse supplements and artificial nipples. Well-meaning friends and family may want to feed the baby or offer a pacifier. But the best thing they can do is make life easy so that mom’s only job is to breastfeed the baby and sleep. Maybe those well-meaning folks can feed your baby her first table foods when she is 6 months old.
4. Get support. Hutchinson credits her success with breastfeeding to the generous support of family. “Nursing was pretty much a 24-hour job for me,” she says. “I was able to do this because I could stay home with my girls and let go of a lot of other responsibilities, like cooking and most other chores. I could not have dedicated the time to feeding that I did without that support.”
Drink A Lot Of Water
Take at least 3 LITER PLAIN WATER to enhance milk production and avoid dehydrated
Follow Pumping Schedule Strictly
This is related to supply and demand concept. A working mother should should pump at least 3 times a day at her workplace. Pumping schedule should be followed strictly because your brain has memory about your pumping time. Your breast also will be ready to supply the milk at that time. If you skip or not follow your schedule, production milk will be decrease because there is no memory about your pumping time.
Eat Healthy
Get enough nutrition in your diet. Healthy diet can promote to produce healthy milk. I will make a separate entry about this
Stay Positive And Avoid Stress
Always thankful for every amount breast milk that you can supply to your baby. Always believe that your milk is always enough to your baby. Get support from your loves one and family.
Good Luck And Enjoy Breat Feeding Journey
Noriah | 012.981.7976 | SID 893270 | Sweet Luna Healthy
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