Please tell me exactly why breastmilk is so amazing..

[Sheeta]

Was talking about this with a friend the other day, we know that BM is best for baby etc, but it struck me that I don't know exactly WHY..

I know it boosts the immune system, but don't understand how. I know it can provide everything your baby needs, but don't understand exactly.

I know I sound like a bit of a muppet here, but can someone please just give me the facts about the benefits of BFing?

Hey, just a random thought that hit me whilst reading this thread... don't shoot me down if i'm talking nonsense, i fully acknowledge i haven't a clue what i'm on about... do women nowadays have "softer" or more delicate nipples that hurt more when bfing starts than previously? cos maybe all our boobies have been softly slung away in cotton and satin cocoons for our whole lives? any peeps here who've gone braless and worn say, denim shirts for years care to jump in? i've always had to wear a bra cos otherwise i'd look like i had four knees so haven't a clue whether chafing and differnt materials would "toughen up" the ol' hooters.

I agree with the notion that breastfeeding is the 4th stage of labour, and if society viewed it like labour, rates might be much higher.

Eveyone knows that labour is painful, difficult and complicated. Everyone also knows that some people have a more difficult time than others and for every smug earth mother who pushed the baby out with some massage oil and an ipod there will be another who had 36 hours of hell followed by an emergency section.

However, we do not automatically assume that we will have a section because we might not be able to labour properly. We are prepared for it to be difficult and accept that there might be reasons why it doesn't work for us but give it our best regardless.

Following the discussion with interest.

Here is a better link for WHO growth charts:

www.who.int/childgrowth/standards/chart_catalogue/en/index.html

Following the discussion with interest.

Here is a better link for the WHO growth charts:

www.who.int/childgrowth/standards/chart_catalogue/en/index.html

I was not breastfed but achieved top grades in all my exams.

I do not have any allergies and am rarely ill.

My sister was breastfed, struggled more than I did in school but still achieved good grades.

However she has eczema and asthma and since she was born has always suffered more from colds than I did.

I personally feel that whether you want to bf or not whatever you want to do is right for you and your baby.

Mabble, the original question was about exactly why breastmilk is best and has now developed into a discussion about why, that being the case, so few women do it for very long in the UK. Nobody has criticised the choice of mothers who go with formula, or suggested that b/fed babies automatically become some sort of superhuman species; let's not create a b/f v f/f argument - there are enough of those on other threads.

Totally agree, ermintrude....mabble, start a new thread if you need to. No one sensible thinks infant feeding methods predict the health outcomes of individual babies, for goodness sake.

Women get sore nipples all over the world, including in places where everyone breastfeeds, though I don't know what the relative numbers are from country to country. I know it is a common difficulty, though.

Soreness is not a result of nipples being protected in bras and by clothing, as far as I can see.

While soreness is very common in the West, many, many women breastfeed with no pain or trauma.

tiktok, would you say it's safe to assume that in places where everyone breastfeeds women expect to have sore nipples though? At the very least they would know someone who could one-up their story.

"oh that's nothing - my boobs were like cantaloupes in my bra and then the left one FELL OFF"

(I know a lady who does this any time pregnancy or childbirth is mentioned )

I had a very good African MW in hospital who said not to worry too much about exact positioning, latching etc and that my nipples would probably get sore anyway to start with and then heal again. She said in Africa women just get on with bf without making it into a science. I thought this was a very sensible approach.

I don't know if the expectation of being sore is universal, and it's a bit depressing to think that all women should just put up with it....soreness is far from inevitable, and I would be very critical of any midwife who suggested it's better if women think they should 'just get on with it'

Probably women in other countries are more stoical and tolerate more - but that's not a good thing, for heavens sake!

But, Tiktok, it's easy to think that you're sore because you're doing something wrong, when in fact it's just your nipples adjusting to bf. I got so stressed about the right latch first time round to the point of dreading feeds. I think it's helpful to know that it can be painful to start with, and doesn't necessarily mean you're getting it all wrong.

Schulte - no one needs to think 'I am doing something wrong and this is why I am sore', but they do need to think 'this is not right, I should not have to put up with this, I will speak to someone' and if this 'someone' says 'I can't see a problem' then to speak to someone else.

Breastfeeding counsellors, including me, see women all the time who have been told 'your latch is fine' and it just isn't - usually we can help people like this with a slight amendment to attachment that improves and sometimes even 'cures' things.

Nipples do not normally need to crack and bleed or be painful to 'adjust to bf' - please don't perpetuate the myth that this is something women have to grit their teeth and put up with.

Yes, some women do become sore and we dont know why. But most can be helped. Sometimes, there is an oral anomaly with the baby which needs checking or correcting (such as tongue tie). Again, it doesn't help for women to think they just have to get used to it

I had a wonderful surestart breastfeeding counsellor who told me that it is the baby that doesn't know what to do, not the mother and it is up to the mother to teach the baby how to feed, just as we will have to teach them to do everything else.

When you look at it this way you feel much less incompetent and reassured that this is a learning curve that neither of you are expected to master straight away.

It saddens me that people don't turn to breastfeeding counsellors more often and are too easily deterred by HV recommending toppping up at the first occasion.

Glad you were helped, fruitstick, but sorry, what a particularly daft thing for that person to tell you - of course the baby knows what to do, and his instinct is to find the breast, latch on and suck and swallow, and the mother does virtually no 'teaching' at all. She 'enables' the baby, but the baby can manage to crawl up to the breast if necessary, and the instinctive behaviour to feed is hard wired in every healthy, term baby.

Learning to work together, mother and baby, is a process that does not always happen instantly, true enough.

I think that's what she was getting at Tiktok but, to be honest, I don't think it's a daft thing to say at all (even if not strictly true ).

At the risk of going round in circles, constantly telling mothers that the baby instinctively knows what to do and it's a natural process etc is really unhelpful because it reinforces the notion that, if it doesn't come naturally, then the mother is obviously not cut out for it and the one at fault.

The notion that you and your baby are learning together is a very encouraging one (at least I thought so).

Essentially though, I think we are all saying the same thing - that it's support and encouragement that is needed to increase breastfeeding rates, not edicts and sweeping guidelines.

I posted this in another thread but I think it bears repeating here:

"Overall, only 35 per cent of UK babies are being exclusively breastfed at one week, 21 per cent at six weeks, 7 per cent at four months and 3 per cent at five months."
link

The rate of BF babies dropping by over 60% between six weeks and four months is where this kind of support/encouragement would probably make the most difference.

Also interesting, this is a medical paper about two previous major BF campaigns in the USA and how current BF campaigners could learn from them
link

It's really fascinating stuff and some of the quotes from the doctors about BF (or 'mother-fed' - I really like that term) babies from the early 1900's sound eerily familiar.

Well, fruitstick, I am in favour of women having accurate information. I don't think it is anywhere near accurate to say the baby doesn't know what to do...and it's actually very misleading, because if the baby doesn't know what to do, there is something wrong.

I don't 'constantly tell women the baby knows instinctively what to do' or that it is a 'natural process' either. But understanding that the baby is hard-wired to feed, and that she will produce milk no matter what, and that breastfeeding is a normal, physiological process that even so, may need support to get going well, is empowering and honest.

That is nothing like suggesting that 'if it doesn't come naturally the mother is not cut out for it and is at fault'.

Honesty, accuracy, support and realism - with no daft (yes!) glosses about the baby not knowing what to do (as if!) - is what I would hope for anyone

Maren, these are statistics for EXCLUSIVELY bf babies. Most mothers I know have used formula occasionally after about 2-3 months but the babies are still mostly bfed - is this 'wrong' as in, does it mean the babies don't get the benefits of bfing any more?

Schulte, I don't think it's wrong at all. If babies who ate other things too didn't get any benefits from BF then everyone could just stop BF as soon as babies started solids.

My HV still considered DD exclusively BF'ed even though she had an occasional bottle at nursery or when someone else was watching her up until we started introducing solids ~5 months. It would be very interesting to know what they mean by 'exclusive' here.

I meant to say that I can only assume they are getting their stats from HVs and midwives, so the HV/midwife definition of exclusive might make a difference.

I am another of those mothers who understands that BFing is best but who for medical reasons couldn't.

DD is nearly 2 now and I had a horrendous crash c-section that went wrong with tranfusions, plasma needed and then my digestive system shut down. The drugs they had to give me just to survive and make me human again meant I couldn't BF DD for the first 12 days, although it would have been impossible for the first 7 anyway as I couldn't hold her either!. I kept trying to get my mum to express so I would have a supply, which worked but by the time she was 12 days old and used to the bottle it just never worked. I tired for 2 weeks to get her to latch on, i went to clinics, HV's, you name it I tried it. In the end i had to give in and i remember sobbing about this for weeks and feeling so guilty that i was putting DD at risk by FF!.

I vividly remember starting baby yoga and her needing a feed, The teacher told me to sit on the chair with the stool as it was the perfect angle for BFing, and me bursting into tears and apologising to the whole class for FF my DD!!!.

Now I can see that all of this was hormonal and silly as the main thing is I was alive and able to look after my DD, and to be honesst she had the least amount of colds of all her friends (although this could be luck!)

I am now pregnant again and I'm desperately hoping to BF this one but i do hate the pressure on woman these days to bf and how it is frowned upon to ff. I think we need to except that there is a place for ff and that if needed it is a perfectly adequate alternative to bfing.