Earlier this season, researchers in Scotland examined the disjunction involving the idealism of exclusive breastfeeding and the fact that lots of families experience. The World Health Organization recommends exclusive breastfeeding for the first 6 months of life for all babies. Other organizations, like the American Academy of Pediatrics, recommend that babies consume breast milk for the first 12 months of life for maximum developmental and immune benefits. According to the Scottish study, nearly all women find these goals unrealistic, despite the known long-term great things about breastfeeding for both mom and baby.
Breastfeeding can reduce the incidence of diabetes, asthma, obesity, ear infections, upper respiratory infections, and SIDS. In reality, the World Health Organization has been quoted to call colostrum-the breast milk that the mother makes in the first couple of days after an infant is born-“baby’s first immunization” because of the immunological benefits that it confers to newborns. According to the authors of Breastfeeding Made Simple: Seven Natural Laws for Nursing Mothers, “exclusive breastfeeding for half a year by 90% of U.S. mothers could prevent 911 infant deaths and save the U.S. healthcare system US$13 billion.” Research has also shown that babies who’ve been breastfed excel in speech and language development and have higher IQ levels. Breastfeeding also provides myriad health benefits for mothers as well-there is a significantly lower incidence of aggressive breast cancer, osteoporosis, cardiovascular disease, ovarian cancer, and diabetes in women who’ve breastfed.
In case a mother and her infant have so much to achieve from breastfeeding, why are exclusive breastfeeding rates at 6 months postpartum only at 15% in the U.S., according to the CDC? Despite much promotion of the benefits and joys of breastfeeding, these low rates are likely because of insufficient support within in the infrastructure of the medical care system and within our communities at large. In reality, the mothers interviewed in the Scottish study said that the possible lack of support from healthcare providers, family members and friends contributed with their decision to avoid breastfeeding before their baby was 6 months old.
The unfortunate the truth is, not absolutely all healthcare professionals fully support breastfeeding and what’s more-not all healthcare professionals are knowledgeable or skilled in providing breastfeeding support and counseling during nursing challenges. Many women receive some education in breastfeeding prenatally say, within a childbirth education class, but then get hardly any continued counseling through the postpartum. Furthermore, the ladies in the study are right when they said that lots of healthcare providers paint a rosy picture of breastfeeding, choosing only to talk about the beautiful bonding experience that the mother-baby nursing dyad has during breastfeeding or the long run health benefits. 卒乳後胸がしわしわ Too few people actually speak about the most popular challenges and pitfalls that the woman may face while establishing breastfeeding out of anxiety about discouraging new mothers from getting started. In the long run, however, the ladies that are challenged by finding a good latch, sore nipples, pumping at the job, or getting chided in public while nursing often feel blindsided by these challenges or feel guilty about not achieving the “ideal picture” of a breastfeeding mother. They are but a some of the challenges that breastfeeding mothers may face.
To state that lots of women aren’t obtaining the support they need from their communities to continue exclusive breastfeeding until 6 months postpartum would be an understatement. Though some companies support breastfeeding with on-site lactation consultants, clean places for expressing breast milk, and on-site day care centers, many employers still do not need good systems in place to aid a mother who needs expressing her milk every few hours to keep her milk supply for her growing baby. Even though that lots of states have laws that protect a woman’s right expressing milk in a clean place other than the usual bathroom-for up to 3 years after the birth of their baby-some women are asked to pump in the tiny stall of the organization bathroom. Others struggle to obtain the break time that they have to express milk every few hours to stop engorgement that may lead to a breast infection.
Breastfeeding mothers have now been escorted off of airplanes, asked to leave restaurants and courtrooms, and shuffled into dressing rooms of major shops while breastfeeding their infant. The causes cited? Some members of people find breastfeeding lewd, offensive or inappropriate. In Maine, what the law states states “a mother has the best to breastfeed in virtually any location, whether public or private, provided that she’s otherwise authorized to stay that location.” Raised public awareness of the rights of nursing mothers is greatly had a need to encourage mothers to continue breastfeeding and maximize the health benefits for her and her baby.
So where do we go from here? First we need to change the cultural attitudes around breastfeeding in the U.S. Breastfeeding our babies is just how that nature created for us to nourish and nurture our offspring. There are often a number of key moments in the first 6 months of a baby’s life where mothers are faced with the decision to persevere through the nursing challenges or to modify to formula or exclusively feeding solid foods. However, more support from knowledgeable, skilled healthcare providers who start using a non-judgmental approach to counseling that extends beyond the first 6 weeks postpartum is paramount over these critical times. Let’s be open and honest about the realities of breastfeeding-which could be hard and frustrating sometimes and beautifully transcendent at other time. By supporting one another, we are able to chip away at the goal of exclusively breastfeeding for the first 6 months of life everyday, one feeding at a time.
