Breastfeeding is advocated for good reasons. Breast milk contains the right balance of nutrients as well as antibodies. Studies have shown that breast milk strengthens a baby's immunity and protects against gut and respiratory infections. Babies will be less prone to coughd, colds, diarrhea and ear infections.
Breastfeeding is not only beneficial to the environment, there are big benefits for babies and mothers too:
1. The mother’s antibodies will protect the baby from illness.
2. Breastfed babies are less likely to have allergies.
3. Breastfeeding reduces the rates of breast cancer and ovarian cancer in mothers.
4. Breastfeeding saves time.
5. Mothers who breastfeed lose weight more quickly after giving birth.
If human breast milk came stamped with an ingredients label, it might read something like this: 4 percent fat, vitamins A, C, E and K, lactose, essential minerals, growth hormones, proteins, enzymes and antibodies. In a healthy woman, it contains 100 percent of virtually everything a baby needs to survive, plus a solid hedge of extras to help ward off a lifetime of diseases like diabetes and cancer. Breast milk helps disarm salmonella and E. coli. Its unique recipe of fatty acids boosts brain growth and results in babies with higher I.Q.'s than their formula-slurping counterparts. Nursing babies suffer from fewer infections, hospitalizations and cases of sudden infant death syndrome. For the mother, too, breast-feeding and its delicate plumbing of hormones afford protection against breast and ovarian cancers and stress. Despite exhaustion, the in-laws and dirty laundry, every time we nurse our babies, the love hormone oxytocin courses out of our pituitaries like a warm bath. Human milk is like ice cream, Valium and Ecstasy all wrapped up in two pretty packages.
Source:
Reader's Digest. june2008. RDHealth.p134. Breast is Best
http://ecostreet.com/blog/eco-friendly-parenting/2007/08/01/
http://www.mindfully.org/Health/2005/Toxic-Breast-Milk9jan05.htm
Breastfeeding is not only beneficial to the environment, there are big benefits for babies and mothers too:
1. The mother’s antibodies will protect the baby from illness.2. Breastfed babies are less likely to have allergies.
3. Breastfeeding reduces the rates of breast cancer and ovarian cancer in mothers.
4. Breastfeeding saves time.
5. Mothers who breastfeed lose weight more quickly after giving birth.
If human breast milk came stamped with an ingredients label, it might read something like this: 4 percent fat, vitamins A, C, E and K, lactose, essential minerals, growth hormones, proteins, enzymes and antibodies. In a healthy woman, it contains 100 percent of virtually everything a baby needs to survive, plus a solid hedge of extras to help ward off a lifetime of diseases like diabetes and cancer. Breast milk helps disarm salmonella and E. coli. Its unique recipe of fatty acids boosts brain growth and results in babies with higher I.Q.'s than their formula-slurping counterparts. Nursing babies suffer from fewer infections, hospitalizations and cases of sudden infant death syndrome. For the mother, too, breast-feeding and its delicate plumbing of hormones afford protection against breast and ovarian cancers and stress. Despite exhaustion, the in-laws and dirty laundry, every time we nurse our babies, the love hormone oxytocin courses out of our pituitaries like a warm bath. Human milk is like ice cream, Valium and Ecstasy all wrapped up in two pretty packages.
Source:
Reader's Digest. june2008. RDHealth.p134. Breast is Best
http://ecostreet.com/blog/eco-friendly-parenting/2007/08/01/
http://www.mindfully.org/Health/2005/Toxic-Breast-Milk9jan05.htm
