Breastfeeding is globally recognized as the gold standard in infant nutrition because of its significant health benefits for you and your baby. It improves your health postpartum through your later years, strengthens the bond between you and your baby, gives baby complete nutrition in their earliest months of life, and supports baby’s optimal growth and development.
Most health organizations, including the American Academy of Pediatrics and the World Health Organization recommend exclusive breastfeeding for baby’s first 6 months of life. But don’t stop there, it’s also recommended that baby continues breastfeeding even as they begin solid foods and up through their second birthday.
Let’s explore the many aspects of breastfeeding, like benefits, frequency, different types of breast milk, and positive long-term outcomes for babies who are breastfed.
Understanding Breastfeeding
Breastfeeding is when you feed baby your own milk. It involves baby directly suckling at the breast, or baby feeding on your milk with a spoon, cup, or bottle. Breastfeeding nourishes your baby and builds their physical and emotional attachment to you.
Breastfeeding is a supply and demand process. The more baby feeds at your breast, or the more you pump your own milk, the more milk your body will make.
When your baby nurses at your breast, your brain receives signals that trigger a complex interaction of hormones, including prolactin, that encourages milk production. Oxytocin is the hormone that helps release your milk.
Types of Breast Milk
Breast milk is not a one-size-fits-all food. It’s uniquely designed to meet baby’s nutritional needs over time, changing and adapting to baby’s growth and developmental needs.
Colostrum: Baby’s First Milk
Colostrum is the thick, yellowish milk your body produces in the first few days after giving birth. It’s often referred to as “liquid gold” due to its nutrient-rich and immune-boosting content. Even if you don’t plan to breastfeed long-term, giving your baby colostrum for the first few days of life provides them with healthy digestive enzymes that are beneficial over their life span.
Colostrum is full of protective proteins produced by your immune system and low in fat. It’s designed to protect your new baby in their early days of life and help them fight infections and other diseases.
Colostrum adds a protective layer to your baby’s digestive system that supports healthy gut microbiomes for easier digestion. It also helps the baby pass their first stool (meconium) and lowers their risk of jaundice.
Transitional Milk
Transitional milk comes in around days 3-5 postpartum and lasts for about 1-2 weeks. It’s the milk that bridges the gap between colostrum and mature milk.
Transitional milk is lower in antibodies (protective proteins) but higher in fat, lactose, and calories than colostrum. It supports your baby’s rapidly growing nutritional needs, builds immune protection, and helps your baby gain weight at a healthy pace.
Mature Milk
Mature milk is the fully developed milk your body produces after 2-3 weeks postpartum. It’s baby’s primary form of nourishment until they begin eating pureed and solid foods.
Mature milk is a balanced mix of proteins, fats, carbohydrates, vitamins, and minerals. It contains two main components: foremilk and hindmilk.
Foremilk is the watery milk at the beginning of a feed, which keeps baby hydrated. Hindmilk is thick, rich in fats, and gives your baby energy to grow on.
Breastfeeding Benefits for Mom and Baby
Benefits for Baby
Enhanced Emotional Bonding: Breastfeeding promotes those feelings of love and attachment—what’s called bonding—between you and your baby through skin-to-skin contact. As you bond skin-to-skin, your body releases oxytocin (the “love hormone”) which relaxes and enhances well-being for you both.
Optimal Nutrition: Breast milk provides all the essential nutrients needed for baby’s first 6 months of life, including fats, proteins, carbohydrates, vitamins, and minerals in the perfect proportions.
Immune System Support: Breast milk contains live cells, antibodies, and immune factors that help protect the baby from infections, including respiratory illnesses, ear infections, and gastrointestinal diseases.
You’re boosting baby’s immunity through your milk each time they nurse at your breast or drink your milk from a bottle. This passive immunity given through breastfeeding is especially critical during the first few months, when the baby’s immune system is still developing.
Brain Booster: Breastfeeding has been linked to better brain development which may contribute to higher IQ scores in later childhood.
Lower Risk of Chronic Diseases: Breastfed babies have a reduced risk of developing chronic conditions like asthma, obesity, type 2 diabetes, and certain childhood cancers.
Lower Sudden Infant Death Risks: Breastfeeding lowers the risk of sudden infant death syndrome.
Benefits for Mom
Faster Postpartum Recovery: Breastfeeding stimulates the release of oxytocin, which helps your uterus shrink back to its pre-pregnancy size. This reduces postpartum bleeding and promotes quicker recovery from childbirth.
Emotional and Psychological Benefits: Breastfeeding is linked to less postpartum depression as it boosts relaxation and bonding with your baby.
Weight Loss: Breastfeeding burns extra calories (800-900 per day), which helps you return to your pre-pregnancy weight.
Natural Contraception: Exclusive breastfeeding can act as a natural contraceptive by delaying the return of menstruation, though it is not foolproof.
Reduced Risk of Breast and Ovarian Cancer: Breastfeeding lowers your risk of developing breast and ovarian cancers. The hormonal changes during lactation delay ovulation, reducing exposure to estrogen, a hormone linked to these cancers.
Benefits of Only Feeding Baby Breastmilk
By only feeding your baby breastmilk, whether through nursing or via a bottle, baby gains these benefits:
Optimal Nutrition: Exclusively breastfed babies receive all the nutrition they need for healthy growth and development, including hydration, protein, fat, carbohydrates, vitamins, and minerals.
Reduced Risk of Illness: Babies who only drink breast milk have a significantly lower risk of stomach flu, diarrhea, eczema, and hospitalization for respiratory syncytial virus (RSV).
Promotes Healthy Weight Gain: Feeding baby breast milk only helps baby gain just the right among of weight to support their growth. It also ensures baby has the best possible nutrition and it can help prevent obesity later in their life.
Improved Immune System Development: When baby only drinks breast milk, they get the benefit of a boosted period of immune protection, reducing their chances of illness, especially in the earliest months of life.
Long-Term Benefits of Breastfeeding for Baby
Years of research shows that breastfeeding sets the stage and makes a positive impact on baby’s health even into adulthood.
Positive Brain Development: Breastfed babies who consume breast milk from infancy into toddlerhood tend to have higher intelligence scores and go on to be more successful in school. The omega-3 fatty acids in human milk, particularly docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), play a crucial role in the development of baby’s brain and central nervous system.
Long-Term Health Benefits for Children
Better Immune Function: Experts have noted that breastfed children have lower rates of autoimmune diseases and allergies later in life. This is likely due to the protective effects of consuming breast milk during early development.
Lower Risk of Psychological Issues: Some research indicates that breastfed children may have lower levels of anxiety, depression, and behavioral problems in childhood and adolescence and greater emotional stability. This may be because mom and baby form a secure attachment formed through breastfeeding.
Reduced Risk of Chronic Diseases: Breastfeeding is linked to lower rates of developing chronic conditions like obesity, celiac disease, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and certain cancers. Breastfed children are more likely to maintain a healthy weight and have better metabolic function in adulthood.
How Often Should You Nurse Baby?
For the first 8-12 weeks, your baby should nurse on demand every 2-3 hours, or 8-12 times per day.
Between ages 1-6 months, breastfeeding may slow to about 6-8 times per day as baby is growing and can go longer between feedings.
From 6-24 months (starting at age 6 months) you’ll likely begin to introduce cereals and other solid foods, which may reduce your breastfeeding to 3-5 times per day.
Those first feedings every 2 hours or so may be hard on you because of your lack of sleep; but this is how your body creates and maintains baby’s milk supply. As baby grows, the time spans between feeds increases as does the amount of milk baby consumes.
Overcoming Common Breastfeeding Challenges
Even though breastfeeding is a natural process, it may present some challenges. Common issues you and your baby may experience include:
Latch Issues: If your baby struggles to nurse at your breast, issues with latching on can cause pain and ineffective feeding.
- Call the hospital where you birthed baby and ask to speak to a lactation consultant, who can help you and baby form an effective latch for feeding
- Most hospitals offer outpatient services where the lactation consultant can support you and your baby one-on-one, or they may offer group support
Low Milk Supply: If you’re concerned about low milk supply, try hand expression with a manual or electric pump after baby finishes feeding. This alerts your body to get busy making more milk.
Stay Hydrated: While baby nurses sip on your own glass of water to ensure you’re both well hydrated. Fruits and vegetables also increase hydration.
Sore Nipples: Your nipples will be sore at first but they’ll adapt and you’ll have less pain the longer you nurse. Baby should be comfortable and nursing easily, if not, try a different position. If your nipples become sore, rub some expressed breast milk or nipple cream on them to see if it provides you any relief.
Breastfeeding is profoundly beneficial for both you and your baby. This natural and centuries old method of feeding your baby provides them with the best nutrition, immune protection, brain development, and emotional attachment to you. The benefits of breastfeeding extend far beyond infancy, with life-long positive health outcomes.
