About Breastfeeding

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months of life for optimal growth and development cognitively, physically, socially and emotionally. The Academy also recommends to continue breastfeeding until at least one year and beyond as mutually desired by mother and child. Research has proven that there are continued benefits for the duration of breastfeeding with positive effects throughout the life cycle. Breastfeeding is one of the most natural and beneficial acts a mother can do for her child. The most dramatic health benefits have been proven to pass from mother to child through breastmilk. What follows are just a few reasons we think breastfeeding is the right choice for you.

Benefits to the Mother:

• A reduced risk of breast cancer, ovarian cancer and type 2 diabetes  
• Releases hormones that help the mother adjust to postpartum stress and a reduced risk of postpartum depression
• Helps encourage natural weight loss
• Strengthens the bond between mother and child
• Ecological and financial benefits
• Breastfeeding can prevent postpartum hemorrhaging and anemia. Women who nurse are less likely to get certain female cancers. Breastfeeding helps you lose the pounds you put on during pregnancy - it increases the hormones that help cut stress.
• Breastfeeding saves money!

Benefits to Baby:

• Human breastmilk is the No. 1 choice of the World Health Organization (WHO) for infant nutrition
• Breastfeeding promotes good health and strengthens the immune system
• Helps achieve maximum function of all body systems (circulatory, musculo skeletal, digestive, respiratory)
• Breastfed babies have a reduction in the risk of ear infections, non specific gastroenteritis severe lower respiratory infections, aptopic dermatitis asthma, obesity, type 1 and 2 diabetes, childhood leukemia, sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) and necrotizing enterocolitis.  
• Provides ideal nutrition for optimal brain development
• Babies have fewer food allergies when exclusively breastfed for six months
• Eliminates potential hazards of infant formula
• Builds closeness, comfort and security between mother and child
• Breastfed children are 20 percent less likely to become overweight adolescents than formula-fed infants, Massachusetts researchers recently wrote in the Journal of the American Medical Association. 
• Breastfeeding seems to make kids smarter. A New Zealand study showed that children breastfed for at least six months had better IQs, reading and math skills than formula-fed children. 
• Breast milk offers building blocks of brain and nerve tissue that are not present in formula. Formula also can't offer the same protective agents. Breast milk's ingredients can help heed off a wide range of problems. Among them: diarrhea, upper respiratory and ear infections, asthma, leukemia, obesity, diabetes and allergies. 

Tips for Working Moms

Kathleen Hughes, manager of Lactation Services for Children's of Alabama, offers these tips:

• Talk with your employer ahead of time and let them know your desire to continue to provide breastmilk for your child even after you come back to work so you can work on a schedule and location for you to pump.
• If you have the option to choose, try and a pump that does not have to be plugged in to work, that way you can pump on the commute to and from work if needed.
• Always keep an extra set of pump supplies in your car, that way if you forget a piece one day you have a backup!
• Keep a water bottle at your desk to make sure you always have a way to stay hydrated.
• Keep microwaveable sterilization bags handy for easy sterilization of pump parts
• Wear nursing friendly clothing
• Get a pumping bra so you can pump hands free 

A lactation consultant will assist with your transition back to work.  Call Children's Lactation Services at 205-939-6600 to talk to a lactation expert or to rent or purchase supplies.