Breastfeeding your new baby is one of the best things you can do for both his health and yours.  The advantages, both immediate and in the future, far outweigh the disadvantages and “inconvenience.”

Advantages of breastfeeding for the baby include:

--Antibodies in the colostrum and milk confer passive immunity against many viral and bacterial diseases.

--Sucking promotes normal jaw and palate development.

--Colostrum has a laxative effect, to regulate bowel movements.

--Human milk has up to ten times as many vitamins as cow’s milk.  (Note:  Cow’s milk should never be given before eighteen months of age.  It can cause iron deficiency anemia, renal stress, and lactose intolerance.)

--Protein absorption from human milk is nearly 100%.  Protein absorption from cow’s mild is about 50%. 

--Elimination of unused protein from cow’s mild or formula is a strain on a baby’s kidney’s, leading to water retention.

--Studies have shown that breastfed babies have fewer allergies later in life.

--Babies who are breastfed have better weight control later in life.

--Human milk promotes better emotional development.  A Japanese study showed that breastfed children adapt more easily to school.  Breastfed children also have been shown to have higher IQ’s later in life.

--Breastfed babies have been shown to have fewer illnesses in the first ten years of life.  Bronchitis, bronchiolitis, and pneumonia cause up to four times more deaths in formula fed children.  Breastfeeding also shows slight protection against juvenile diabetes.  Breastfed babies have half the incidence of otitis media (middle ear infections) as do formula-fed babies.

Advantages of breastfeeding for the mother include:

--Easier expulsion of the placenta via oxytocin (the hormone that starts milk expulsion) stimulation.

--Breastfeeding aids in the prevention of post-partum hemorrhage.

--Breastfeeding increases the rate of uterine involution (return to normal size).

--It completes the hormone cycle of pregnancy, letting the body know the pregnancy is finished.

--Breastfeeding decreases the risk of break cancer (1:25 drop to 1:125 after six months of nursing.)

--Breastfeeding aids in return to normal weight.