Incredible Facts About Breastfeeding

Breastfeeding is amazing in so many ways, from helping you to form an intense bond with your baby in the first hours after birth to the benefits it has on your baby’s health, even into adulthood. It is the reason why breast milk is called ‘liquid gold.’

So, whether you’re a first-time mother or otherwise, there is always so much more to learn. The excitement experienced by other mothers may be similar to your own experience, and the enhancement of that experience can be apparent when you find out what the experts want you to know about breastfeeding. Here, we have discussed few of the incredible facts about breastfeeding that every mother should be aware of before starting to breastfeed and also those who want to experience the healthy and beautiful bonding benefits offered by it.

There is a plethora of information available everywhere around the topic of breastfeeding, but it is important for you to know what is best for you. Especially if it’s your first time as a breastfeeding mom, the best thing you can do is to educate yourself so that you can make the right decisions about the rewarding experience of breastfeeding.

If you’re a breastfeeding mom, you might be taking help from the internet, books, magazines and what not, so the following facts will be very informative, motivating, inspirational for you.

• Human milk is very helpful in boosting the baby’s immune system as it is filled with protein and antibodies also the baby receive all the nutrients and disease-fighting powers they need from breast milk which helps baby fight viral, bacterial, parasitic infections, which includes respiratory tract infections, ear infections, bacterial meningitis, pneumonia, urinary tract infections, infant diarrhea, common cold, and flus.
• Colostrum (your first milk) is produced immediately after the delivery and contains special proteins that coat your baby’s intestinal tract to protect from harmful bacteria right from the start.
• Your brain releases the hormones prolactin and oxytocin during breastfeeding, that help you to bond with your baby and ease those normal feelings of stress and anxiety.
• The smell and taste of your breast milk changes depending on the foods you eat. Exposing your little one to more flavors during breastfeeding can lead them to be less picky eaters once you begin introducing solids.
• Breastfeeding could be very beneficial in reducing your baby’s risk of developing diseases later in life, which includes Type I and II diabetes, Hodgkin’s disease, Leukemia, Obesity, High blood pressure, High cholesterol levels, Crohn’s disease, Ulcerative colitis, Asthma, and Eczema.
• Breastfeeding is not only helpful for your baby, but it also helps in reducing your risk of developing ovarian and breast cancer, heart diseases. The longer the mother breastfeeds, the higher will be the benefit.
• Breastfeeding can help mothers to return to their pre-pregnancy weight.  It generally takes 1000 calories a day on average to produce breast milk due to which it is advised that mothers should consume an extra 500-600 calories a day.
• A mother’s body is constantly making the perfect milk for her baby. Even the milk produced by the mother changes its nutritional profile as the baby grows (milk made for a 3-month-old is different than for a 9-month-old). It can even vary from day to day—like the water content may increase during times of hot weather or when the baby is sick to provide extra hydration.
• Breastfeeding might help in lowering the risk for childhood obesity. A study was proposed a couple of years ago that stated that breastfeeding leads to better eating habits in preschool-aged children. While the kids who were bottle-fed and even if they were drinking pumped breast milk still they were less able to tell when they were full, so they kept eating.

Over to You

So, we hope the information is super beneficial for every breastfeeding mother out there. And therefore it is important for you to keep these fascinating facts in your mind that will help you to stay motivated. As breastfeeding is beneficial to both mother and baby, hence it is advisable to all the mothers to exclusively breastfeed your baby for the first six months.