Feb
11th
Files under Breastfeeding |
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Are you pregnant and trying to decide whether breastfeeding is right for you and your baby? I’ve already talked about how breastfeeding benefits your newborn, but do you know breastfeeding provides substantial benefits to the mother as well?
The followings are some of the breastfeeding benefits for mom:
- In response to the baby’s sucking, the mother’s body releases hormone oxytocin that makes her uterus contract and get smaller. If a woman does not breastfeed, her uterus will remain slightly larger than it was before pregnancy.
- Many mothers also get emotional benefits from breastfeeding because of the closeness of this interaction with the baby and from the satisfaction of helping to nourish their babies. Mothers who breastfeed immediately after the birth quickly develop a strong bond with their baby.
- It may offer protection against some cancers such as breast, uterine and ovarian. Studies have shown that the risk of developing breast cancer can be reduced by almost 50% in breastfeeding mothers. Breastfeeding for 12 to 24 consecutive months can reduce your risk of developing uterine cancer by almost one third.
- It may also help to increase bone density, preventing osteoporosis when breastfeeding ceases.
- Breastfeeding can aid weight loss after birth. Breastfeeding can burn up to 500 calories a day, which can help you lose those extra pregnancy pounds. Breastfeeding mothers showed significantly larger reductions in hip circumference and more fat loss by one month postpartum when compared with formula-feeding moms. Breastfeeding mothers tend to have an earlier return to their pre-pregnant weight.
- Breast milk is free - reducing or eliminating the cost of formula (in the thousands per year).
- Benefits child spacing. Since breastfeeding delays ovulation, the longer a mother breastfeeds the more she is able to practice natural child spacing, if she desires. How long a woman remains infertile depends on her baby’s nursing pattern and her own individual baby.
- Breastfed babies are sick less thus reducing health care costs to family in doctor office visits, prescriptions and hospitalizations.
- Breastfeeding is usually easy and convenient. Breastfed babies are very portable and you have instant, pre-warmed, ready-to-serve food wherever you go.
