There is a natural skin-to-skin contact at every feed between the mother and the baby, which encourages stabilisation of emotions on both parts.
The sucking of the nipples has a calmative effect on the baby.
Oxytocin, which is also called “ the love hormone”, is secreted during breastfeeding and that increases the mother’s feeling of love towards the baby.
Natural immunity is passed onto the baby through the mother’s breast milk, hence babies who are breastfed tend to develop less illness.
UNICEF’s report showed in the case of pneumonia, the babies who are brought up exclusively by breast milk for over six months are 30 times less likely to develop the disease than the babies who are brought up on artificial milk.
Compared to the proteins in the cow’s milk based artificial milk, the proteins in the breast milk are partially “digested”, hence it is very kind to the baby’s gut. Therefore even during diarrhoea, digestion of breast milk is possible.
Premature babies born weighing less than 1500g are able to take in breast milk but their gut will be damaged if they are given artificial milk.
Of course, easy to digest means they are hungry after two to three hours . . . asking for more!
For a baby, bifidobacteria and lactic acid bacteria are the “healthy” intestinal bacteria. Such bacteria normally exist in mother’s vagina and the baby first come into contact with them through vaginal delivery. Its colonisation in the intestine is aided by nutrient from breast milk.
Artificial milk on the other hand encourages the colonisation of E.coli (the same as adults what do you mean by this?) in its intestine and sometimes this can cause serious infection to the baby.
(However, more recent artificial milk considers this and is designed to increase the colonisation of bifidobacteria and lactic acid bacteria in the intestine).
Sucking of the nipple induces secretion of hormone called oxytocin, which stimulates contraction of the womb to its original size and encourages lochia to be secreted.
It also encourages shedding the extra weight gained during pregnancy through production of breast milk.
(Baby whose weight is 3kg will take 300 kcal worth of breast milk from the mother per day. Three months old baby will take around 600 kcal worth of breast milk daily from the mother. Which means if you do not give breast milk, you will not be expending this extra 300 to 600 kcal per day.) * 600 kcal is equivalent to a light meal.
As the proteins in the breast milk are produced by a human, suitable for a human infant, it is partially digested, as a result the baby is much less likely to have an allergic reaction through taking breast milk.
It does not cost you anything!
Such are a few of many benefits that you will experience through breastfeeding.
For the breastfeeding to establish properly, it is important that the baby will be offered mother’s nipple as soon as it is born. Also, not to give any other form of nutrients. As well breast milk should be be given whenever it is requested.
It is easy to breastfeed on demand when you sleep next to each other on a futon from the moment of birth.
More than 90% of mothers who gave birth in our center continued breastfeeding for over a year.
Lastly although the quantity is important, the quality of the milk is also very important. Through receiving good quality milk, the baby tends to be in much better mood, making both the mother and baby happier.
