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More Articles on A Healthy Pregnancy

Thinking About Getting Pregnant?
Congratulations on Your Pregnancy! (for those who are newly pregnant)
What is a healthy pregnancy weight gain?
Can I continue to eat a vegetarian diet during pregnancy?
A Pregnancy Menu For You and Your Baby
Treating Nausea and Vomiting
What About Seafood?
Don't Eat That!
Pregnancy and Cholesterol
Wash Those Veggies!
Breastmilk, the Healthiest Diet for Babies
What DOES that Broccoli Do for My Baby?
Vitamin D Supplements in Pregnancy and Breastfeeding
New Research Affirms Individualized Vitamin D Supplementation for Pregnant Women
Breastfeeding: Developing a Future Gourmet
What to Do About The Flu
Gestational Diabetes
Decreasing the Risk of Gestation Diabetes
Keeping and Storing Breastmilk
Pregnancy Weight Gain Guidelines – Do We Need New Ones?
Breastfeeding: A Woman's Health Issue
Eating During Labor
Probiotics and a Decreased Risk of Gestational Diabetes
Pregnancy - a Time to be Active!
Clearing the Air : Quit Smoking for You and Your Child
What is a Healthy Pregnancy Diet for Obese Women?
Does Iron Intake Matter?
One Fish, Two Fish... Full Term Birth?
Folic acid in pregnancy and language development
A Mediterranean Diet, Pre-Pregnancy
There is No Substitute for a Healthy Diet
Honest Healthy Diets for Babies
Exercise for New Moms
A Healthy Pre-Pregnancy Diet and Gestational Diabetes
Vitamin D and Gestational Diabetes
Great News About Breastfeeding
Peanuts and Pregnancy
Fried Foods and Gestational Diabetes
Iodine supplements - should you take them?
Prevent Gestational Diabetes with a Mediterranean-style diet
FDA Updates Recommendations for Fish Consumption in Pregnancy

Faith Bontrager, RN, BSN

Faith Bontrager, RN, BSNFaith's passion in nursing is to help people find the options they need to discover their personal path to optimum health. Ask her friends and they will tell you that their appreciation of nutritious food has grown through Faith. About Faith Bontrager, RN, BSN

Breastfeeding websites

La Leche League
La Leche League is a breastfeeding support group. Check their website, there may be a local group close to you.

Dr. Jack Newman
Dr. Jack Newman's site has great question and answers about breastfeeding, breastfeeding techniques, and overcoming breastfeeding challenges.

Benefits of Breastfeeding
The US Department of Health and Human Services website.

GotMom.org
Breastfeeding support from the American College of Nurse Midwives.

Ask Dr. Sears
The Sears are authors of books on breastfeeding and childcare.

ProMoM, Inc.
Breastfeeding support around the world.


 

A Healthy Pregnancy

Breastmilk, the Healthiest Diet for Babies

As a site dedicated to the best in food and nutrition, we HAD to address the issue of breastfeeding. While we respect a woman's right to choose formula, just as we respect her right to eat spaghetti from a can, we can't honestly recommend either as first choice nutrition.

Related:

Read the Breastfeeding FAQ

Health Communities Breastfeed Babies

Breastfeeding your infant is like giving him a freshly-prepared gourmet meal designed by a nutritionist for that particular time in his life. Breastmilk changes according to an infant's need. A woman's milk is different when her infant is 1 week old than it is when her infant is 6 months old. When the weather is cold, breastmilk has a higher fat content. When it is hot, it has a higher water content.

Breastmilk contains vitamins, minerals, essential fatty acids, and the perfect amount of protein, carbohydrates, and fat for babies. The types of nutrients in breastmilk are the types that babies can most easily absorb.

Breastmilk contains a number of anti-infective properties and can help fight infection. Mom has been building her own immune system over the years, developing immunity to diseases to which she has been exposed. Breastfeeding allows her to pass along these immunities to baby when his own system is immature.

No wonder research shows that breastfed babies have a lower incidence of ear infections, respiratory infections, SIDS, gastroenteritis, necrotizing enterocolitis, and type 2 diabetes(CDC Research to practice series #4 July 2007) and many other diseases.

Childhood obesity is a problem in the United States. Breastfeeding can decrease a child's chance of being overweight. Initially researchers disagreed as to whether it was the actual breastmilk itself that gave this benefit or the feeding style. (It is much easier to overfeed a baby with a bottle of formula.) While nursing at the breast is definitely good for baby, further research is showing that breastmilk itself can help protect a child from being overweight.

Breastfeeding is economical. Breastfeeding can save you between $1,160 and $3,915 per year, depending on brand of formula you "would have used." Many breastfeeding experts say the cost savings are significantly higher because of the cost savings from fewer doctor and hospital visits. [http://www.womenshealth.gov/breastfeeding/benefits/#a]

Breastfeeding is also good for mothers. Women that breastfeed their babies have a lower rate breast cancer, ovarian cancer, and type 2 diabetes. (CDC Research to practice series #4 July 2007)

There are many more benefits of breastfeeding for both infants and their mothers. Take a breastfeeding class at your local hospital or birthing center or visit a La Leche League meeting.

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Breastfeeding Endorsements

The AAP Section on Breastfeeding, American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, American Academy of Family Physicians, Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine, World Health Organization, United Nations Children's Fund, and many other health organizations recommend exclusive breastfeeding for the first 6 months of life. Exclusive breastfeeding is when an infant is given only breastmilk (no juice, water, or formula). [http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/content/full/pediatrics;115/2/496]

The American Academy of Pediatrics states that "breastfeeding should be continued for at least the first year of life and beyond for as long as mutually desired by mother and child."

Despite these endorsements and overwhelming research that shows that breast IS best, a recent survey shows that over 70% of hospitals still send free samples of formula home with new parents. [http://www.cdc.gov/breastfeeding/data/mpinc/index.htm] This practice has been condemned by the World Health Organization as it has been shown to decrease breastfeeding rates.

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There is a a LOT of evidence-based information about breastfeeding. Go to the websites listed at left. Talk to your pediatrician and lactation consultant. Take a class on breastfeeding. Go to a La Leche meeting.

Nourish yourself and your child!