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To Breast Feed or Not to Breast Feed?
I'm not talking about in public. I'm talking about whether you think it is important to breast feed or not. I've been talking to a few parents that did not breast feed their children and have noticed some major "differences" that these children have compared to those who opted for breast feeding.
I know that there are a handful of 20sb moms out there... what is your take on the breast feeding situation? And also 20sb moms to be, it may not be for a couple of years, but for those of you considering having children, how do you feel about it? And guys too, although I don't see any logical reason a guy would be against breast feeding... but who knows, maybe there are!
Ok, go!
I know that there are a handful of 20sb moms out there... what is your take on the breast feeding situation? And also 20sb moms to be, it may not be for a couple of years, but for those of you considering having children, how do you feel about it? And guys too, although I don't see any logical reason a guy would be against breast feeding... but who knows, maybe there are!
Ok, go!
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Hater Von G on -
Breast is best, but to me there are a lot of things to consider. Time management, whether or not you work/go to school, latching issues, health issue, drinking/smoking (let's not kid ourselves.. no one is perfect). I think that as long as you are feeding your child properly with either breast milk or a formula supplement, then you're OK. Breast feeding is not for everyone.
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Permalink Reply by Sara Nipples on -
I agree completely.
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Permalink Reply by Sarah on -
I'm probably biased as my mom was a big part of a breast feeding coalition here, but I fully intend to breastfeed if I'm able to. There are so many health benefits associated with breast feeding, and it's free. To me it just seems like the most natural choice in the world.
That said, I have a friend who got really down on herself about not breast-feeding because she found it difficult and stressful. She felt like she was being judged harshly by other moms and by some health professionals for not being able to get the hang of it, which made her an extremely stessed-out mama. So despite what I think my choice would be, I'm definitely careful not to be judgmental about people who don't breast feed their kids.
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Permalink Reply by leilani on -
I also know people personally who have made comments to the effect of feeling judged etc. when trying to breastfeed. It also IS very difficult at first and I think between the fact that women are unaware of this/expect it to happen easily and the fact that this occurs during the immediate period after childbirth (aka during a period of irregular emotionality) many women give up very quickly.
it may be stressful/difficult... but i find it very frustrating that many women try it for a short time period and then decide it "isn't working" - i would think i would not give up that easily if it were something having to do with my child's health... however, i also have not had to deal with this situation personally so i guess i should shut up now.
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Permalink Reply by leilani on
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I f*cking hated my OB rotation for so many reasons - not least of all because people in the field are so into all of this hippie dippy overly natural stuff...
but breastfeeding is SO important, and it became INCREDIBLY frustrating to me that people wouldn't do it. Or even try!!! I cannot even remember all of the benefits that the literature has supported - the benefits are just incredibly abundant. Some of the really important ones though include immunological benefits, less future hospital visits (and lower healthcare costs)... I think it has even been correlated with things like higher IQ and lower risk of obesity (though I would tend to think confounding factors influence this a lot as breastfeeding mothers are statistically more well-educated, higher income, etc. parents)...
It is also sad because infants that face poorer outcomes due to things like teen mothers also tend to be children of those who are uncomfortable/otherwise disinterested in breastfeeding. I think it would honestly be very good to have a campaign w/psas or something about it - both to decrease the sexualization of breasts in our society (and that barrier to breastfeeding) and to increase knowledge of how important it truly is...
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Permalink Reply by RAY J on -
"I think it has even been correlated with things like higher IQ"
then please explain why my none of my sibling-in-laws can spell for crap, use correct grammar, do math or comprehend the simplest of messages (even when you phrase the messages thinking there's no possible they could not understand it), yet my sis and I have no problems with that stuff (I took honor classes, got mostly all As & Bs in high school and was on the honor roll with a 3.8 gpa) and my younger cousin is one of the smartest kids in her class and the 3 of us were all bottle feeders while my in-laws breast fed?
I think that's a pretty bogus claim as there's plenty of smart people that weren't breast fed and plenty of "not so smart" (to be nice) people that were breast fed.
less future hospital visits
The only time my sister ever spent time in the hospital was when she was accident prone as little kid. I only went once when I got my finger sliced open on a shovel. Again, there's plenty of people that weren't breast fed that rarely go to hospitals and plenty that were breast fed that go more. Just saying, I think this is a pretty bogus claim to make as well.
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Permalink Reply by leilani on
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As for the IQ thing - as I said - I believe a LOT of it has to do with confounding things like socioeconomic factors and environmental influences. Having said that, I spent 2 mins googling and there is actually a LOT of research establishing the link between breastfeeding and intelligence - ex:
"Breastfed children attain higher IQ scores than children not fed breast milk, presumably because of the fatty acids uniquely available in breast milk." (Caspi et al., 2007)
Or - and this one is based less on biology:
"These results, based on the largest randomized trial ever conducted in the area of human lactation, provide strong evidence that prolonged and exclusive breastfeeding improves children's cognitive development." (Kramer et al., 2008)
Those are just the ones on the first page as I am too lazy to look for more, but there is quite a lot of evidence supporting this very un-bogus claim, which you may look into if you are so inclined.
The latter claim I made is less directly substantiated, because IgA is transmitted to the newborn via breastmilk. Having said that - per the american academy of pediatrics: "In the first year of life, after adjusting for confounders, there were 2033 excess office visits, 212 excess days of hospitalization, and 609 excess prescriptions [...] per 1000 never-breastfed infants compared with 1000 infants exclusively breastfed for at least 3 months." (Ball & Wright, 1999)
Again, I am sure you could find more/better research on that if you looked but I just did a quick search.
...So do I think you're doomed to be unintelligent and hospital-bound if not breastfed? of course not - there are ALWAYS plenty of people that do not conform to textbook truths, however, breastfeeding remains the best course of action for those reasons as well as many, many others.
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Permalink Reply by Sarah on
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Breast feeding is obviously not the only factor in determining a child's intelligence or academic acheivement, but that doesn't mean the claim that it can help is bogus.
If you're interested, INFACT has a lot of interesting information.
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Permalink Reply by leilani on
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uh, sorry if i came on a little strong!
as was probably evident, i just feel pretty strongly about this because of my experience with certain populations who are not even open to breastfeeding. and at the risk of sounding overly dramatic, it just makes me kind of sad that they don't even care to consider the ways they could give their child the best possible start.
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Permalink Reply by Ashley Koch on -
It's funny, because when you think about it, humans are just animals. You wouldn't (most likely) ask a cow or a deer or some other animal if it intends to breastfeed, because that's the only thing it knows (although I'm sure there are exceptions, but I think that breastfeeding is generally the norm among other mammals). Obviously, humans are more advanced or whatever than, say, a deer, but we are just animals, so why not do what our animal bodies are made to do?
Then again, we do BIZARRE things like drink cow's milk and eat chicken eggs, so I don't even know anymore.
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Permalink Reply by RAY J on
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Hubby and I are planning on starting to TTC in the next few months... right now I'd rather not but I guess we'll see when the time comes - I really think it's a personal preference.
My mom didn't breast feed me or my sister and we both turned out just fine. My aunt couldn't breast feed my cousin (as soon as wasn't preggo she felt she really needed to get back on her meds) and she's one of the smartest kids in her class. Another girl I know online didn't breast feed her son and he's a pretty sharp kid too.
A friend of mine did with her son though and is doing so now with their newborn daughter. I'm pretty sure my mother-in-law did with all her kids, as hubby seems to think breastfeeding is the norm, however, out of 6 kids, hubby's the only intelligent one...
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