The Benefits of Breastfeeding

By Summer, RNC, BSN, Breastfeeding Educator

Did you know that the Liquid Gold flowing from your breasts is doing just as much to protect your health as it is your baby’s? That’s right, the benefits of breastfeeding are not exclusive to your baby. Breastfeeding is beneficial to your own health as well, and a recent focus on the long-term benefits of breastfeeding has added new value to the Good Ole Liquid Gold. Read more to learn the many ways that both you and your baby benefit from breastfeeding and how long these benefits last.  

Breastfeeding is an essential part of the biological process that began with pregnancy. Your body and baby are designed to work together, and the job does not end at birth. It seems that most mothers understand that breastfeeding provides their newborns with some protection against illness but learning how it all works is empowering and the only way to truly appreciate the benefits of breastfeeding.

You will be surprised to learn the many ways that your body and your baby continue working together after birth and how you both will benefit for long after breastfeeding ends. The research linking breastfeeding to reduced risks of cancer and disease is growing fast. Breastfeeding has become a well-documented protective factor and could even be the key to decreasing cancer and illness across the board! It is research findings like these that have given new value to the Good Ole Liquid Gold. 

What are the benefits of breastfeeding?

The instincts to breastfeed are driven by far more than hunger.

Did you know that a newborn will instinctively crawl to the breast after birth? Breastfeeding is a survival instinct, and not just for your baby. A lot is happening in the moments right after birth that you are probably unaware of. While you are passing immunity to your newborn by breastfeeding, your newborn is also hard at work protecting you. When the placenta leaves the uterus, it is like a scab leaving a wound. To stop the blood flow to the placenta, the uterus must contract. Think of your uterus as an open wound, and just as you must hold pressure over a wound to stop the bleeding, so must your uterus contract. Oxytocin is the hormone that tells your uterus to contract, and breastfeeding floods your body with oxytocin to contract your uterus and protect you from postpartum hemorrhage. Without this response from the body, a mother could lose her entire blood supply in as little as three minutes! In the critical moments after birth, the instincts to hold and breastfeed your baby serve to protect you from bleeding and ensure your own survival. In fact, it is due to this vital role of oxytocin that it has become custom in our culture to give mothers a drug called Pitocin immediately following birth.

Pitocin is a synthetically derived version of your body's oxytocin. This practice is not as common in other areas of the world, and women rely on their newborns and the hormones they stimulate by breastfeeding for their survival. And at the breast, your newborn finds more than the warmth of love. Your body also regulates your newborn’s temperature! Newborns have very little fat to burn for warmth, and they lose their body heat quickly. Your body can fluctuate the temperature of your chest by two full degrees to regulate your newborn’s temperature. We call this the "Maternal Blanket." Also, the smell of your amniotic fluid on your newborn at the breast stimulates your body to begin breast milk production. It is the release of the hormone Prolactin that sends your body the message to start producing milk. It is recognition of how amniotic fluid influences this that has led to delayed bathing of your baby in the hospital setting. And while you can still sense the smell of amniotic fluid on your baby, you produce Colostrum.

The drops of colostrum that your newborn gets from the first feeding transfer not only the immunity that you have built up over time to your baby but also antibodies your body has created on the spot to protect your vulnerable newborn from the environment into which they have been born! It is mind-blowing that all this is happening within your body during pregnancy and birth. And it all happens naturally, without you even having to think about it! These forces of nature often go under appreciated. It is survival at the basics, a species will not survive without children, and a species certainly will not thrive on motherless children.

How long do the benefits of breastfeeding last?

Your body creates life, and you finish the job by breastfeeding. Babies are not born because growth and development are complete; they are born because their mothers can no longer host them. Even after birth, your body continues to provide all that is needed for your newborn's growth and development, just as in utero. Your breast milk also seals your baby's intestines, maturing them and preparing them for use! Research has recently recognized the vital role that this plays in building immune system health.

It is proven that the healthy intestines created by breastfeeding are the building blocks of a robust immune system that will serve to protect your baby from illness and disease for the rest of their life! In the meantime, your body protects your baby by creating antibodies to fight the germs in your SHARED environment. You pass these live antibodies through your breast milk, much like a vaccine. The literal Mother of all Vaccines protects your baby from the common childhood illnesses they are exposed to for as long as they are breastfeeding, and the superior intestinal health that your breast milk gives them will keep on protecting them long after breastfeeding ends. Think of your Breast milk as your Liquid Gold Vaccine and Breastfeeding as your Superpower!

Read on to find out the other benefits of breastfeeding that your baby can look forward to and links to the revolutionary research backing them. Talk about stimulating!

Breastfed children are less likely to:

• Suffer from nighttime fussiness and other symptoms associated with Colic. As the bio identically created food for your baby, breast milk is easily digested, and it is even scientifically proven to have a Narcotic effect on your baby; we call it "Milk Drunk."

• Contract the common cold or other Respiratory Illnesses such as Pneumonia, Flu, Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV), Whooping Cough, and COVID-19

• Suffer from Ear Infections, specifically the Otitis Media infection of the middle ear that causes hearing loss

• Develop Asthma, Allergies, or other disorders of the immune system such as Eczema

• Experience the Gastrointestinal Illnesses causing Diarrhea and Vomiting  or more serious Inflammatory bowel conditions including Chron’s Disease, Colitis, and Celiac Disease

• Have problems with Obesity and Diabetes

• Suffer from SIDS- studies prove that breastfeeding cuts your newborn's risk of suffering from Sudden Infant Death Syndrome in half!

• Develop Childhood Cancers such as Leukemia and Lymphomas

And yet another system not fully developed at birth is your baby's central nervous system. Only your breast milk contains the often imitated, never duplicated, long-chained fatty acids essential for optimal brain growth! Your baby will thank you for a Bigger Brain and a Higher IQ. The early dependence and attachment that breastfeeding offers builds trust and emotional health, which fosters later independence. Studies conclude that there is a significantly lower incidence of Autism amongst breastfed children. And not only is your breastfed baby less likely to suffer from learning disabilities, but breastfeeding has been proven to enhance learning ability! Research also links breastfeeding with a decrease in the incidence of mistreatment and neglect. Studies show domestic violence rates to be much lower amongst breastfeeding families.

How is breastfeeding beneficial to the mother?

I like to tell parents, “Recovering from delivery and caring for your newborn without breastfeeding is like trying to do a job without the proper tool.” The hormonal surge from breastfeeding heals your body from birth and protects you from pregnancy while it's healing. During pregnancy, your uterus grows from the size of an apple to the size of a watermelon. The contractions stimulated by breastfeeding regulate your bleeding and exercise your uterus back down to shape while also burning off your extra baby weight. Breast milk production requires as many calories as does pregnancy! And something else you may not have known, the hormones stimulated by breastfeeding also serve to protect your emotional well-being. They give you extra energy to care for your newborn and the stamina to endure the lack of sleep that comes along with it. Research finds that Breastfeeding mothers fall to sleep faster and get more deep sleep.

Essentially, the hormones stimulated by breastfeeding make you more efficient at sleep. Scientists believe that this may explain why Postpartum Depression rates are higher among women that do not breastfeed and have found breastfeeding duration to be inversely related to Postpartum Depression. Meaning, the longer you breastfeed, the more protection you have against Postpartum Depression. Breastfeeding has even become a recognized treatment for Postpartum Depression. Research also confirms that breastfeeding significantly reduces your risks of developing cancer and disease. Breastfeeding completes the hormonal cycles that begin with pregnancy. These hormonal cycles create cell changes in your body during pregnancy. Science has recognized that completing these hormonal cycles leaves the cells in a protected state, making them less susceptible to cancer and disease. In a sense, breastfeeding seals these cells and protects them like your breast milk seals and protects your newborn's intestines.

It has been found that breastfeeding offers protection against autoimmune disorders such as Multiple Sclerosis (MS) and cancers of the reproductive system, specifically breast cancer. Exciting research of varying results all concludes that your risk of developing certain types of breast cancer is as much as 10 percent lower after having breastfed for one year and the protective effect of breastfeeding is even greater for women who have breastfed for over a year, reducing your risk by as much as 20 percent! The hormones stimulated by breastfeeding also lower your blood pressure protecting you from cardiovascular disease. These protective benefits are correlated with the cumulative amount of time spent breastfeeding. In other words, like all that is breastfeeding, the more you give, the more you will receive!  

Conclusion  

Empowered with the knowledge of how it all works, celebrate your instincts to breastfeed. Only you can provide your newborn with the superior food that nature intended. And now you can truly appreciate all the many benefits that breastfeeding has to offer you both.