What They Don’t Tell You About Breastfeeding Your Baby

Breastfeeding, as you will doubtless be told frequently, is best for baby. What you won’t be told is that for a large number of women it’s a battle. It may be natural but some one forgot to tell some newborns that information! In order to promote breastfeeding professionals simply omit to tell women about the realities of breastfeeding and many midwives are simply too overstretched to be able to support women who are experiencing problems.

Ironically, if women were more aware of the difficulties they may encounter, then maybe they would be less likely to give up at the first hurdle and less likely to feel guilty at their perceived failure. So here are some of those possible problems and hopefully a few myths put to rights too.

Babies are not all born knowing instinctively how to breastfeed, like you they need to learn. It can take many attempts and of course perseverance pays off. The problem is many women feel pressured to feed their baby instantly and feel panicky when their newborn loses some birth weight. At this point the temptation to top up with a bit of formula is great however this in itself can create issues for successful breastfeeding. A breastfed baby needs to open their mouth wide to feed and their mouth shape is very different to a bottle fed baby. Offering a bottle before a baby is established on the breast ( at about 6 weeks ) can make breastfeeding very hard as it is too confusing for the baby. It is better, if you feel the need to offer formula, to offer a baby formula off a spoon to be lapped up in order to avoid any confusion.

Women who have Caesarians, especially elected can take longer for their milk to “come in” therefore breast feeding can be trickier as the pressure to feed their infant increases. It can be hard to find a position to feed your baby in comfortably. Some women need to sit upright to feed and this can take a little while to manage post Caesarian.

It doesn’t matter what size your breasts are, breast feeding is possible. Don’t believe the myth that small breasted women can’t feed it simply isn’t true. It is true that many women find it painful and suffer sore and cracked nipples. This is usually due to poor or improper positioning of the baby when latching on. A baby needs to tilt their head back to take in the nipple and aureola, placing your baby nose to nipple and tickling their upper lip with the nipple helps the baby to learn a good position. You should be belly to belly with your baby and they should be lifted to the breast, don’t lean over to the baby as this encourages a poor position. You can buy special breast feeding cushions that help in the early weeks of feeding.

If you are struggling seek advice before giving up, sometimes it can be a simple issue such as the baby being tongue tied and a small procedure can correct this. Even a women who has had breast augmentation can potentially breast feed as modern techniques do not always interfere with the process.

Breast milk is easier to digest than formula so you may find yourself feeding every 2 hours or so, day and night, so you may find yourself feeling envious of formula fed babies who can sleep longer as formula is slower to digest. Some people also believe breastfeeding helps shift the baby weight quicker. While this is true for some women breast feeding requires increased calorie intake and over exercising can affect milk supply. Don’t compare yourself to celebrities that are back in their jeans after 3 weeks, chances are they are formula feeding and at the gym every hour available!

Breast feeding is a great way of bonding with your baby but it can take time and effort. Some women take to it easily, others struggle. Many women can express milk at the drop of a hat while others never really take to it, it can be difficult to get a “let down” of milk when you have a pump in your hand.

Stress can be a real factor that affects successful breastfeeding, the more pressure a woman feels the harder it is.  Support is vital, as is good advice and reassurance. You can find many excellent books and DVD’s on breastfeeding . The old adage “practice makes perfect” is very apt when it comes to breastfeeding, don’t expect to be able to do it first time, there a very few women who medically can’t feed so be prepared with the facts and you should succeed.

The Benefits of Breast Feeding

Breastfeeding baby

As a new parent, you may be battling between the choices of bottle-feeding and breastfeeding.  While you’re weighing your options, you should know about all of the benefits that come from breastfeeding – from convenience to long-term health.  You may be surprised by all of the advantages provided by Mother Nature.

Breast milk is more than just a form of food.  It is actually made of living cells that can have huge benefits for your child’s health.  One of the most crucial components of breast milk is colostrum.  This substance is produced early in your baby’s life and is full of antibodies that help your baby’s immune system to develop in the first days of his life.  By breastfeeding your baby, you provide this protection that can’t be matched by a commercial formula.

On top of the immune boost that breastfeeding provides, breast milk is also easier for your baby’s developing digestive system to process.  Your baby will have fewer problems with constipation, diarrhea, and even have fewer food allergies.

Breastfeeding also helps your baby’s brain to develop because it’s rich in fatty acids that protect the cells of the brain.  It also helps your baby to develop strong muscles because breast milk provides the perfect mix of proteins for building muscle tissue.  Finally, in a time when obesity is a major health problem around the world, breastfeeding can be a great way to help your child maintain a healthy weight.  Babies who are breast-fed have a smaller chance of becoming obese later in life.

While breastfeeding has a huge impact on your baby’s development, it can also have a dramatic effect on your body.  If you choose to breast feed, you’ll open up a world of benefits for now and for the long-term.  The immediate benefits of breastfeeding can be very powerful.  After you give birth, breastfeeding actually stimulates the contractions that help you expel the placenta.  It can help your body to recover more quickly and painlessly.

Breastfeeding also burns major calories!  What better way to burn off the baby weight without having to hit the gym?  It will also prevent your body from having a period for several months if you feed your baby exclusively breast milk.  In addition, breastfeeding provides a natural method of contraception.  In the long-term, breastfeeding can provide disease prevention power.  Women who breastfeed their babies have a lower risk of developing breast and other cancers throughout their lives.  They’re also less likely to have problems related to osteoporosis.

One of the best reasons for breastfeeding is a benefit for both mom and baby.  When you breastfeed your baby, you help to develop the bond between the two of you.  This provides comfort and improved mental health for both of you.  When you’re weighing the decision of whether to bottle feed or breastfeed, make sure to consider the overall well being that comes from this natural process.

Feeding a premature baby

When it comes to dealing with a premature baby, the rules change somewhat from the typical ones for dealing with a baby where everything has happened more or less on schedule. Sometimes you will find that, due to their reduced size and strength, your baby has less of an appetite if it has been born prematurely. In order to mitigate against this you may need to pay more attention and encourage him or her to feed. Even though their natural desire to feed may be reduced as compared with a stronger baby, they will still need to feed in order to gain some of the strength that they lack.

A newborn, fully healthy baby will want to feed between eight and twelve times a day. They will automatically wake up in order to do this. A premature baby may prefer naturally to sleep, as they will tire easier due to their lack of strength. This may mean that you need to wake your baby and persuade him or her to feed. After a time this will become a more natural process as they gain in strength and consequently in appetite. While you are waiting for this to happen, it may be necessary to wake without “fully waking” – an alarm clock set to a gentle chime will mean that you can wake, feed, and go back to sleep, which is much better for your own health. By keeping your baby in the same room as you, you can simplify this matter a great deal.

How often should you feed a baby?

With a newborn baby in the house, especially if it is your first, there is so much to learn that you simply cannot replicate with classes, books and additional parenting aids. Every baby that is born will have its own unique traits, and although you can learn a lot from other parents, from books, from TV and a wealth of other sources, there is always the fact that what works with one baby may not necessarily work with another. However, this should not be viewed as an apocalyptic warning. As a parent, you will learn quickly how to deal with your baby, and they will form an attachment to you.

The question of how often to feed a baby is one that often arises for new parents. With regard to how often they need feeding, it seems to differ slightly but is generally between two and three hours between feeds. At this stage of their life, any baby is programmed to sleep for short periods and awaken to be fed at such intervals. This is why parents will talk about sleepless nights at the early stage of parenthood. As the child grows older, they will of course begin to go longer between meals, but at an early age, with no ability to articulate their needs nor understand what people are saying, they will find their own way to make things clear to you. This regularity of needing to be fed is why many parents keep the baby in the same bed as them in the early stages.

Why breast is best

In the early days with a new baby, a new mother will often feel a bit daunted by the idea of breast feeding, and may struggle with the decision over when to use the bottle and when to use the breast. As the saying goes, “breast is best”. This is true in that there are more natural nutrients in breast milk than will ever be found in bottled formula, and it enables the baby to grow up in better health than would otherwise be possible. There is, it goes without saying, some drawback to this. But there are drawbacks to everything, and it is how you address them that is really important.

A baby will require feeding at regular intervals, and for a mother who is breast feeding this can present a few interesting challenges. For one, there is always the concern of whether the baby will need to be fed while you are out for one reason r another. Breast feeding in public is still frowned upon by many, and in some places you will be asked to leave if you do it. This limits where you can go and what you can do, and although you can express breast milk to be served from a bottle, this affects the temperature.

Additionally, some mothers feel that breast feeding causes unreasonable pain in the nipples. Expressing milk is a partial answer to this, but achieving the right temperature is only part of the problem there. Some people feel that feeding directly from the breast is the only way to establish the closeness that a mother and baby should have – anything less and you will have to deal with people asking you why you are not doing it, and regardless of your reasons they will keep doing so.