Breast Feeding
Breastfeeding is one of the most effective ways to ensure your child’s health and survival.
Breastmilk is the ideal food for infants. It is safe, clean and contains antibodies which help protect against many common childhood illnesses. Breastmilk provides all the energy and nutrients that the infant needs for the first months of life, and it continues to provide up to half or more of a child’s nutritional needs during the second half of the first year, and up to one third during the second year of life.
Did you know your body gets ready for breastfeeding before you even give birth?
Grape-like clusters of cells within the breast called alveoli rapidly grow during your pregnancy which causes your breasts to become fuller and more tender. Milk production occurs within the alveoli.
After you have your baby, pregnancy hormones lower, which then helps the lactation hormone, prolactin, to be released. Prolactin sends a message that tells your breasts to make milk.
When your baby suckles, your brain releases another hormone called oxytocin. Oxytocin causes muscles around the alveoli to squeeze milk out through the milk ducts. The ducts carry the milk through the breast.
When milk is released, it is called the “let-down reflex”.
Signs of milk release are:
- Tingling, fullness, dull ache, or tightening in the breasts (although some moms do not feel any of these sensations).
- Milk dripping from the breast.
- Uterine cramping after you put baby to the breast during the first few days after birth.
OXYTOCIN released from the brain during breast feeding not only causes the breast tissue to contract but also helps your uterus stay contracted, which helps to decrease post-partum bleeding.
To encourage your milk to release, try these methods:
- Find ways to relax, such as going to a calm place or trying deep breathing.
- Place a warm compress on your breasts before breastfeeding.
- Massage your breasts and hand express a little milk.
It is recommended that babies exclusively breastfeed for the first 6 months of life.
Most healthy newborns are ready to breastfeed within the first hour after birth. Hold your baby directly against your bare skin (called “skin-to-skin” contact) right after birth. Placing your baby against your skin right after birth triggers reflexes that help your baby attach or “latch on” to your breast.
Your baby helps you make milk by suckling and removing milk from your breast. The more milk your baby drinks, the more milk your body will make.
When babies are hungry, they will nuzzle against your breast, suck on their hands, flex their fingers and arms, and clench their fists. Crying usually is a late sign of hunger. When babies are full, they relax their arms, legs, and hands and close their eyes.
Your baby’s stomach is very small, and breast milk empties from a baby’s stomach faster than formula. For these reasons, you will typically breastfeed at least 8–12 times in 24 hours during the first weeks of your baby’s life.
Frequent breastfeeding or milk removal, especially in the first few days and weeks of your baby’s life, helps you make a good milk supply.
If it has been more than 4 hours since the last feeding, you may need to wake up your baby to feed.
- Each nursing session typically lasts 10–45 minutes.
- They may be 15-20 minutes per breast.
- They may be shorter or longer.
- Your baby will let you know when he or she is finished feeding.
Your baby’s eating patterns may change from day to day. Just follow your baby’s lead, and that will help you build your milk supply. Once your breast milk transitions from colostrum to mature milk, your baby will soak at least six diapers a day with urine and have at least three bowel movements a day. After 10 days, your baby will be back up to birth weight.
Your milk will continue to vary according to your baby’s needs. Each time your baby feeds, your body knows to make more milk for the next feeding. The amount of milk you make will go up or down depending on how often your baby eats.
By nursing for as often and as long as your baby wants, you are helping your body to make more milk.
At first, it might feel like you are doing nothing but breastfeeding. Soon, you and your baby will get into a pattern that works for both of you.
Breast Feeding FACTS
HEALTH BENEFITS FOR MOMS
- Breastfeeding burns as many as 500 extra calories each day, which may make it easier to lose the weight you gained during pregnancy.
- Women who breastfeed longer have lower rates of type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, and heart disease.
- Women who breastfeed have lower rates of breast cancer and ovarian cancer.
- Breastfeeding releases oxytocin, a hormone that causes the uterus to contract. This helps the uterus return to its normal size more quickly and may decrease the amount of bleeding you have after giving birth.
HEALTH BENEFITS FOR NEWBORN
- Breast milk has the right amount of fat, sugar, water, protein, and minerals needed for a baby’s growth and development. As your baby grows, your breast milk changes to adapt to the baby’s changing nutritional needs.
- Breast milk is easier to digest than formula.
- Breast milk contains antibodies that protect infants from ear infections, diarrhea, respiratory illnesses, and allergies.
- Breastfed infants have a lower risk of sudden infant death syndrome. Any amount of breastfeeding appears to help lower this risk.
- If your baby is born preterm, breast milk can help reduce the risk of many of the short-term and long-term health problems that preterm babies face, such as necrotizing enterocolitis or other infections.