Breastfeeding and How Moms Benefit from It

We all know that breast is best when it comes to nurturing the physical and metaphysical needs of our babies. To debrief you: the antibodies in a mother's breastmilk and colostrum are designed specifically to protect the specific child of that woman by building up his/her immune system; the emotional security breastfeeding offers to an infant is fundamental; the baby gets exposure to different flavors based on the mother's diet and is more inclined as a child to eat vegetables, as well as a variety of other foods; cow's milk was made to grow baby cows and human milk is designed exactly to grow baby humans; breastfed infants are more in control of how much they eat than are bottle fed infants and are less likely to be overfed and are therefore more likely to develop healthy eating habits when older; breastmilk is always ready, warm, available, and sanitary; breastfeeding helps guard babies against some childhood cancers like leukemia, and protects girl babies from some female cancers as women. That's just to generalize some of the leading pluses for babies who are breastfed.

Less commonly discussed in our culture are the equally powerful and impressive benefits to the woman who breastfeeds her babies. And the greater total time a woman breastfeeds during her life, the more impact these benefits have for her. All of the preceding and following information was gained from The Complete Book of Breastfeeding by Marvin S. Eiger, M.D. and Sally Wendkos Olds, Third Edition, 1999, Workman Publishing, New York.

For starters, a woman who breastfeeds her children is less likely to develop certain reproductive cancers (including, but not limited to, breast cancer). If a woman was both breastfed as an infant and also breastfeeds her own children she has an increased protection over a woman who benefits from only one or the other. With breast cancer being such a major concern, it's important for women to know that we can help ourselves by breastfeeding extensively as mothers, and by making sure our daughters nurse as babies for at least one year (and grow up to breastfeed their own babies).