Feeding your infant is something a mother does to make them stronger and better. While some go for it, others opt for giving powdered milk. A mother’s milk not only leads to better emotional bonding between her and the newborn but also offers some health benefits to the child.
Besides providing the necessary health benefits, there are some added advantages for both mother and her newborn baby. In this article, we will reveal to you the benefits of breastfeeding for both the mother and child;
Advantages for the Baby
1. A healthy baby – The milk from a mother’s breast is full of vast nutritional sources including proteins, fat, mineral and many other beneficial ingredients. This not only helps your newborn grow into a healthy child but is much better than the infant milk.
2. Protection from diseases – Breast milk also provides your young child a significant cover from many illness and infections along with lowering the chances of them being affected by allergic diseases such as Type 1 Diabetes. It helps in increasing the chance of their survival in the first year and lowers the risk of infant death.
3. Better bonding – There are also some emotional and physical benefits of breastfeeding due to direct skin contact. The mother knows how much milk is to be fed to her child while feeding her and develops a better emotional bonding with her child.
4. Say good bye to obesity – Research has shown that obesity and overweight occur less in those breastfed. Infants who are breastfed have Leptin in their bodies that keep a check on the fat.
5. Better brain power – Cognitive abilities are better in children breastfed. A study carried out among 4,000 children revealed that babies who were breastfed had a higher score on the vocabulary than those who were not.
6. Stronger bones – Breast milk provides the necessary nutrition to your child, and it helps them in developing structured bones. It provides your newborn with 400 units of Vitamin D making their bones much better shaped and rigid.
7. Better immunity – Infants breastfed have better resistance power to vaccines than those fed with a powdered form of milk.
8. Easy to digest – Breast milk often is easier to digest as compared to powdered formulas, which is made from cow’s milk. Digesting powdered milk takes some time for the infant’s stomach to adjust to it.
Besides providing some benefits to the newborn, we will now reveal to you how breastfeeding can help the mother as well;
Benefits for the mother
1. Better healing rate post-birth – Mothers who breastfed their children suffer less blood loss and have an improved healing rate post-pregnancy. Breastfeeding also makes the bleeding of the uterus stop after the delivery.
2. More closeness with the newborn – Emotional benefits and better bonding due to close interaction with the child. A better emotional bonding developed between a mother and her child who is breastfeed than those on the powdered milk.
3. Less depression, more happiness – It lowers the chances of postpartum depression, often seen in mothers who do not breastfeed their newborn. Those feeding their babies feel a sense of calm and positive feelings of a stronger bonding.
4. Reduce cancer – Breastfeeding lowers the chances of new mothers developing cardiovascular problems and even certain form of cancer including breast cancer.
5. Reduce obesity – Mothers who breastfed their children are less prone to becoming obese and gain their pre-pregnancy figure in less time.
Being a mother, one knows how it feels while feeding their children and watching them grow on your milk. Powdered milk is better for the adults as they have better immunity system developed already. But an infant deserves their mother’s milk not only for better bones and immunity, but also for sharing a produce better bonding with their mother.