Breast feeding story
Right after birth the baby is placed on Mommy's bare breast. It knows instinctively to latch on and starts sucking. Mommy's breast feels so good and soft!
During the following weeks, baby feeds very often, even several times during the same hour. Baby sleeps with Mom so it feels secure and Mom is able to watch baby closely and feed the baby easily. Mother and baby get used to breastfeeding and learn the right positions with the help of friends and other supportive people. Other women help the mother with breastfeeding problems if they arise.
Baby and mother grow to love each other a lot and enjoy the closeness of breastfeeding. Breast gives baby comfort as well as food - and thereby baby grows well and is very happy. Baby does not need security blankets or pacifiers - it uses Mommy's soft and cuddly two breasts instead!
Somewhere along the way solid foods are introduced, but baby continues to nurse, too. Even during the toddler years the little child nurses here and there, especially when going to sleep or during times of stress.
Nursings get less and less, being only a few times a week. Finally the child weans itself willingly, without getting any emotional trauma from leaving its 'security blanket' behind.
Sounds ideal... and it is, but in reality breastfeeding is not always this easy! Fortunately breastfeeding rates have slowly been increasing since the 1990s, but only 41.5 percent of US infants are still being breastfed at 6 months, as found by the immunization survey in 2006. [1] And even though experts recommend exclusive breastfeeding for 6 months, the same survey found that only 31% of mothers at 3 months and a mere 11% at 6 months were doing so. [1]
However, a careful study of statistics shows that 9,000 lives could be saved yearly in the USA by exclusive/extended breastfeeding! That is because breastfeeding infants have only 1/5th the rate of SIDS, and half the rate of the overall infant deaths. [8]
During the following weeks, baby feeds very often, even several times during the same hour. Baby sleeps with Mom so it feels secure and Mom is able to watch baby closely and feed the baby easily. Mother and baby get used to breastfeeding and learn the right positions with the help of friends and other supportive people. Other women help the mother with breastfeeding problems if they arise.
Baby and mother grow to love each other a lot and enjoy the closeness of breastfeeding. Breast gives baby comfort as well as food - and thereby baby grows well and is very happy. Baby does not need security blankets or pacifiers - it uses Mommy's soft and cuddly two breasts instead!
Somewhere along the way solid foods are introduced, but baby continues to nurse, too. Even during the toddler years the little child nurses here and there, especially when going to sleep or during times of stress.
Nursings get less and less, being only a few times a week. Finally the child weans itself willingly, without getting any emotional trauma from leaving its 'security blanket' behind.
Sounds ideal... and it is, but in reality breastfeeding is not always this easy! Fortunately breastfeeding rates have slowly been increasing since the 1990s, but only 41.5 percent of US infants are still being breastfed at 6 months, as found by the immunization survey in 2006. [1] And even though experts recommend exclusive breastfeeding for 6 months, the same survey found that only 31% of mothers at 3 months and a mere 11% at 6 months were doing so. [1]
However, a careful study of statistics shows that 9,000 lives could be saved yearly in the USA by exclusive/extended breastfeeding! That is because breastfeeding infants have only 1/5th the rate of SIDS, and half the rate of the overall infant deaths. [8]
posted by ravi at
12:23 AM
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