Photo courtesy of Furya

Thus, the CDC urges new mothers to initiate breastfeeding early and to feed frequently. Mothers already breastfeeding should continue to do so, even if they become ill. Formula feeding should be avoided or minimized and breastfeeding maximized. In the Health News Digest, USBC Chair Joan Younger Meek, MD, MS, RD, FAAP, FABM, IBCLC, recommends breastfeedng in emergency situations such as a swine flu outbreak:

Research clearly shows that breastfeeding provides a safe, reliable food source, full of disease-fighting cells and antibodies that help protect infants from germs and illnesses. Mothers exposed to influenza produce specific protection for their infants and transmit this through their breast milk. Infant formula does not provide these specific infection fighting properties. Unnecessary formula supplementation should be eliminated so the infant can receive as much benefit as possible from maternal protective antibodies and other immune protective factors.

Key points from the CDC swine flu guidance include:

1. If a mother is ill with swine flu, she should continue breastfeeding and feed the baby more often. If she is too ill to feed at the breast but can pump, expressed breast milk should be fed to the baby. The risk of transmission of the H1N1 virus through breast milk is unknown, but reports of transmission of the regular, seasonal flu through breast milk are rare.

2. If the baby becomes too ill to feed at the breast, he should receive the mother’s expressed breast milk or donated human milk from a non-profit milk bank.

3. Antiviral medication treatment and prophylaxis are compatible with breastfeeding.

4. All usual precautions against virus transmission should be taken, including hand washing and covering coughs and sneezes.

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Photo courtesy of Karen Barefoot

Nearly 140,000 post-menopausal women were studied in the Women’s Health Initiative. According to the Vancouver Sun (via One Small Step for Breastfeeding…), the study revealed breastfeeding’s heart health benefits on three levels:

1. Risk Factors. Women who breastfed their babies had lower incidence of the following three risk factors for heart disease: diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol.

2. Cardiovascular Disease. Women who had never breastfed were significantly more likely to develop heart disease than women who breastfed for seven months or more.

3. Heart Attack and Stroke. Women who breastfed for a cumulative 12 months or more in their lifetimes had a 10% lower incidence of heart attack, stroke, or heart disease later in life.

Researcher Eleanor Bimla Schwarz, MD told WebMD:

The longer women nursed babies, the less likely they were to develop diabetes, heart disease, or stroke. Any breastfeeding was good, but more was better.

The complete study appears in the May 2009 issue of Obstetrics and Gynecology.

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Photo by Hector Landaeta

When the baby suckles, the mother releases CCK. The hormone infusion relaxes her and readies her to drift off to sleep again. If mother and baby are co-sleeping, the mother might even drift off before the baby finishes the feed! What a peaceful experience compared to getting up to prepare a bottle, sitting up to feed, placing the baby back in a crib, and finally climbing back in bed to attempt to fall back asleep after that wide-awake period, without the benefit of sleep-inducing CCK! Even better news: the baby produces CCK as well, both from suckling and from the fatty hindmilk reaching the baby’s stomach at the end of a feed. The Australian Breastfeeding Association explains:

There are actually two CCK peaks, one at the end of a feed, and the other higher peak between 30 and 60 minutes after the feed. The baby sucks, gets sleepy, dozes off for a while then wakes again for a top-up feed. That higher-fat feed causes the second peak and the baby goes into deeper sleep. Top-up feeds are also great for the mother’s milk supply.

Some parents mistakenly believe that feeding a baby formula will help the baby sleep longer at night and that will translate into more sleep for the parents. Two things parents should know: (1) the reason formula-fed babies’ tummies feel full for longer stretches is that formula is harder for babies immature systems to digest, and (2) formula-feeding results in less overall sleep for parents! A 2007 study published in the Journal of Perinatal and Neonatal Nursing concluded that parents of breastfed babies enjoy an average of 40 more minutes of sleep per night!

So, in honor of World Sleep Day today, celebrate how breastfeeding actually helps mothers and babies get more rest through the wonderful sleep hormone CCK, through the side-lying sleep position, and through co-sleeping!

It’s 9:49 p.m. here, I just nursed the baby back to sleep *yawn* and I’m off to bed….

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Let’s be clear though — breastfeeding is wonderful for babies with food allergies. Do not interpret these results to mean that breastfed babies are more likely to have food allergies, because in fact the opposite is true! To learn more about the protective effects of breastfeeding, read “‘A’ is for Food Allergy Prevention and Reduction.”

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Benefits for Baby

~ A meta-analysis of several studies found “There is good evidence that breastfeeding reduced infants’ risk of ear infections by up to 50 percent, serious lower respiratory tract infections by 72 percent, and a skin rash similar to eczema by 42 percent. Children with a family history of asthma who had been breastfed were 40 percent less likely to have asthma, and children who were not prone to asthma had a percent reduced risk compared to those children who were not breastfed. . . . The report also found that breastfeeding was associated with . . . decreased incidence of childhood leukemia, and decreased deaths from sudden infant death syndrome. . . . In premature infants, breastfeeding decreased the occurrence of necrotizing enterocolitis, a serious gastrointestinal infection that often results in death.”

~ “Deaths from respiratory infections and diarrhea were eight to ten times higher in babies who were artificially fed than in those who were even partially breastfed for six months.” (The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding, 7th Revised Edition, page 350).

~ Breastfeeding offers protective effects against obesity in childhood.

~ Breastfeeding helps a child reach his or her full potential IQ.

~ Breastfeeding conveys babies with long-term heart-health benefits.

~ Babies who are breastfed have a reduced risk of developing diabetes later on in life.

~ Breastfed baby girls have a 25% lower chance of developing breast cancer as adults.

~ Breastfeeding promotes mental health in children. One study found “children that were breastfed had particularly lower rates of delinquent, aggressive and anti-social behaviour, and overall were less depressed, anxious or withdrawn.”

Benefits for Mother

~ Studies indicate a decrease in a breastfeeding mother’s breast cancer risk after just three months of breastfeeding, and the risk goes down even further thereafter. “[W]omen who breast-fed for a total of six years or more (all children combined) over the course of their lives had as much as a 63% decrease in breast cancer incidence compared to women who never breast-fed.” (Cornell University fact sheet.)

~ Breastfeeding for more than a year offers some protection against ovarian cancer as well.

~ “Non-breastfeeding women have a four times greater chance of developing osteoporosis than breastfeeding women and are more likely to suffer from hip fractures in the post-menopausal years.” (7 Ways Breastfeeding Benefits Mothers)

~ “Breastfeeding has been shown to reduce stress and protect maternal mood. Breastfeeding also reduces stress of babies of depressed mothers and protects them from the harmful effects of maternal depression.”
“A new paradigm for depression in new mothers: the central role of inflammation and how breastfeeding and anti-inflammatory treatments protect maternal mental health.” Kendall-Tackett, Kathleen. International Breastfeeding Journal 2007, 2:6.

~ Women who breastfed for 13 months or more are half as likely to develop rheumatoid arthritis as those who never breastfed.

~ The aforementioned meta-analysis found that “there is good evidence that women who breastfed their infants had up to a 12 percent reduced risk of type 2 diabetes for each year they breastfed.” A diabetic breastfeeding mother may require less insulin.

Benefits for the Family

~ Many couples rely on the Lactational Amenorrhea Method of birth control for natural child spacing.

~ Breast milk can clear a stuffy nose, much like saline drops.

~ Breast milk cures pink eye (conjunctivitis) and treats blocked tear ducts.

~ Breast milk makes it easier for the family to run errands, go places, and travel — no bottles, formula cans or ice packs required, the milk is always ready, and the milk stays at just the right temperature!

~ Breastfed babies’ poop smells better!

~ Breast milk does not stain clothing like iron-fortified formula does.

Benefits for Society

~ Breastfeeding is the green choice compared to the manufacturing, energy, and transportation costs of producing formula and formula cans, not to mention the added waste to landfills.

~ Breastfeeding benefits employers by reducing lost work hours, combating health care costs, and improving maternal health and employee morale!

~ After a study showed breast milk killed cancerous lung cells, scientists isolated the anti-cancer component in breast milk and are developing and studying it for clinical use.

~ According to the U.S. Breastfeeding Committee, “Costs to support a breastfeeding mother in the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) are about 55 percent of those for a formula-feeding mother. $578 million per year in federal funds is spent by WIC to buy formula for families who could be breastfeeding.”

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