Breastfeeding is one of the most effective ways to ensure child health and survival. A lack of exclusive breastfeeding during the first six months of life contributes to over a million avoidable child deaths each year. Globally less than 40% of infants under six months of age are exclusively breastfed. Adequate breastfeeding support for mothers and families could save many young lives.
WHO actively promotes breastfeeding as the best source of nourishment for infants and young children. This fact file explores the many benefits of the practice, and how robust help for mothers can increase breastfeeding worldwide.
The reason I chose breastfeeding because I know that one it is the most effective way of bonding with the child, two it can be a healthy way to ensure that the child is receiving nutrition, but the downfall to breastfeeding is that it is an effective way to pass diseases to your child. The feel that with this particular topic this is information that will continue to change as years pass. There will always be way to were doctors try to keep breast-feeding as a number one source of nutrition for the child and it will allow people like myself that doesnt have kids yet to gain more knowledge of the topic and how it can effect the child.
However babies who are exclusively breast-fed are less likely to get sick, because breast milk provides them with antibodies against any disease that the mother is immune. Breast- feeding also decrease the risk of many diseases that appear in childhood and adulthood, among them asthma, obesity, and heart disease.
Breastfeeding in other countries
The world's oldest and still most widely practiced form of birth regulation is breastfeeding. That statement draws much skepticism among ordinary people in Western culture, but it is recognized as still true by professionals in the fields of international demography and infant nutrition because they know how breastfeeding affects both health and birth intervals in primitive cultures around the world. A professor of pediatrics put it this way: "Demographic data recorded prior to the 20th century from birth records all over the world indicate that the average spacing of children was about two years when mother's milk supplied the major source of calories for infants during the first year to 1.5 years of life."
In the West African country of Rwanda, a culture in which there were no contraceptives or taboos against intercourse after birth at the time, there were no differences in the birth intervals of bottle feeding mothers in the city compared to those in the rural areas. On the other hand, among breastfeeding mothers, there were significant differences. Among the city mothers who were already developing patterns of separation from their babies, 75% conceived between 6 and 15 months postpartum. However, in the rural areas, mothers had their babies with them all of the time, and 75% of the rural breastfeeding mothers conceived between 24 and 29 months postpartum. An even more dramatic example of the effects of very frequent suckling is provided by the Kung tribe. (The exclamation point represents a clicking sound.) Anthropologists watched these people with stopwatches and found that the babies and toddlers were nursing an average of two minutes every 15 minutes, and the mothers were conceiving at about 35 months. Such extended periods of breastfeeding infertility are rarely seen in Western culture. First of all, only a few Western mothers nurse that long although their number seems to be increasing. Secondly, there is some speculation that the richer diet of Western women may contribute to an earlier return of fertility.
I think breastfeeding is a wonderful thing. I just recently found out that it can be a form of birth control.When you breastfeed a hormone called prolactin is produced by your body, this stimulates the continuous production of milk so that your baby is able to feed. Prolactin also acts as a fertility suppressant, blocking the release of the hormones involved in ovulation. This means that if you breastfeed your baby on demand from birth (feeding every 3-4 hours) sufficient prolactin will produced to suspend your menstrual cycle and prevent you from ovulating and falling pregnant again.
ReplyDeleteBreastfeeding is a very important topic. You brought some valuable information. I think at times we are looking at all of the positives when it comes to breastfeeding. I'm sure it's a wonderful way to experience bonding while breastfeeding. However, I am glad that you brought up that diseases can be spread during this process. Especially in other countries where disease is very high, it's important that people have a reminder that disease can be passed to the baby during this process.
ReplyDeleteI never knew that professionals actually supported breastfeeding as being a form of birth control. I breast fed both of my children until they were 18mths. I did not get pregnant with my 2nd child until I stopped breastfeeding. I also have a friend that says that every time she stopped breastfeeding that she became pregnant. I did a post on breastfeeding on this blog a little while back and the benefits of breast feeding are amazing as you mentioned. My children were very healthy babies and are healthy children as well. I'm a believer!
ReplyDeleteI am equally shocked, as Gloria stated, that breastfeeding is a supported method of birth control. I was warned over and over again that it is not a sure thing and that many women have become pregnant while breastfeeding. I do not know of any Western doctors that would back up that claim and it is unfortunate that research stating otherwise is not spread to other areas of the world. That would actually help with birth regulation! Thank you for the information.
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