Breastfeeding is best for babies :)

 

Even before we got pregnant, I already am bent on breastfeeding our baby if ever we are gifted of one.

 

My sister has been doing it for my nephew till now at 21 months. I had a friend who did it for more than 3 years. Their babies babies rarely got sick...if not never. The stories they shared to me were very inspiring.

 

I was a breastfed baby myself. All 5 of us are. Had my Mom not done it, asthma would have consumed me by now.

 

As one of the ad campaigns in a local tv station would go, every mother wants the best for her baby...the best diaper, the best toiletries, the best milk...what else, but one that is tailor-made for her baby - her own breastmilk.

 

I was going through the last pages of one my favorite pregnancy reference books (Baby love by Marivi Blanco and Ipat Luna) this weekend and I thought of sharing the reasons why a Mom to be should chooose to breasfeed (p.s. these are mostly direct quotes from the book):

 

• Breastmilk is Designer milk. Imagine a personal/chef who determines from day to day what you need to eat to stay healthy and then cooks it up fresh at each meal. As oppose to formulas based on cow’s milk which are based on one unchanging recipe. Eventually, they could lead to nutritional deficiencies in your infant. Just like any food, fresh is always the best.
• Breastmilk is alive. Every third of a teaspoon of human breastmilk contains one million living cells. They function like a microscopic SWAT team sent by Mama to protect and defend her infant.
• Breastmilk is more stable than cow’s milk or formula.
• It is more digestible than cow’s milk. This is because lactalbumin, the type of protein easier for babies to absorb than caseinogen, the protein component in cow’s milk.
• Breastmilk prevents constipation and diarrhea. Additional perk: because of human milk’s easy digestibility, the poop of babies who are exclusively breastfed smells sweeter and is less likely to cause diaper rash.
• It has low sodium consisting of only 30% as much mineral salts compared to cow’s milk.
• It supports a higher calcium level in your baby’s blood.
• It keeps your baby fit, not fat.
• It lowers the incidence of middle ear infections, gastroenteritis, pneumonia, and cancers of the immune system. It also protects your baby from developing asthma, allergies or eczema. It is also found to lower incidence of SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome).
• Breastfeeding encourages mother-baby bonding.
• Breastfeeding may save you future orthodontist bills.
• It discourages babies from being picky eaters.
• Breastfed babies are smarter than formula-fed babies. Numerous studies have found that children who were breastfed as babies are up to 8 IQ points smarter than their formula-fed peers.
• Lastly, it is totally natural and ecologically friendly.

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With that, I just hope I do get to breastfeed Maia. I've heard just as much discouraging stories about how some mothers have exhausted all possible efforts to do it only to have their babies refuse their milk.

 

But with the proper support, I think I can do it. Hehe.