Joey M.D.

It’s actually the middle of World Breastfeeding Week (August 1-7, 2009).

I am proud to say that I breastfed both my babies.  1 year and 10 1/2 months for my son (he’s now 3 years and 9 months old) and currently fully breastfeeding my 6 week old daughter.

While I am the first to say that to nurse or not to nurse is ultimately the family’s, especially the mother’s choice, I would convince every mom to seriously consider breastfeeding.  There are just too many benefits to consider, both for mommy and baby. These benefits are embodied in the policy statement of the American Academy of Pediatrics on Breastfeeding and the Use of Human Milk.  Here’s the link (PDF file).

To summarize the benefits –

Benefits For Baby:

• decreases the incidence and/or severity of a wide range of infectious diseases including bacterial meningitis, bacteremia, diarrhea, respiratory tract infection, necrotizing enterocolitis, otitis media, urinary tract infection, and late-onset sepsis in preterm infants
• postneonatal infant mortality rates in the United States are reduced by 21% in breastfed infants
• Some studies suggest decreased rates of sudden infant death syndrome in the first year of life and reduction in incidence of insulin-dependent (type 1) and non–insulin-dependent (type 2) diabetes mellitus, lymphoma, leukemia, and Hodgkin disease, overweight and obesity, hypercholesterolemia, and asthma in older children and adults who were breastfed, compared with individuals who were not breastfed. Additional research in this area is warranted.
• Breastfeeding has been associated with slightly enhanced performance on tests of cognitive development.
• Breastfeeding during a painful procedure such as a heel-stick for newborn screening provides analgesia to infants

Maternal Benefits:

• Decreased postpartum bleeding and more rapid uterine involution attributable to increased concentrations of oxytocin
• decreased menstrual blood loss and increased child spacing attributable to lactational amenorrhea
• earlier return to prepregnancy weight
• decreased risk of breast cancer, decreased risk of ovarian cancer
• possibly decreased risk of hip fractures and osteoporosis in the postmenopausal period

Community Benefits : Economic, family, and environmental benefits have been described. These benefits include –

• the potential for decreased annual health care costs of $3.6 billion in the United States
• decreased costs for public health programs such as the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC)
• decreased parental employee absenteeism and associated loss of family income
• more time for attention to siblings and other family matters as a result of decreased infant illness
• decreased environmental burden for disposal of formula cans and bottles
• decreased energy demands for production and transport of artificial feeding products

With so many benefits, breastfeeding should definitely be the top choice for infant nutrition!