Let's Breastfeed

What makes breast milk special?

At lunch a week or so ago, a friend asked me to sell him the idea of breastfeeding. Sell him the idea of breastfeeding? Has he not been around for the last 5 years, where the benefits of breastfeeding have been plastered all over newspapers, TV, Magazines, bill boards? Seriously?!?

Anyway, as I began telling him about the positive aspects of breastfeeding and why he should support his wife, as and when, they have little ones, I began to get quite excited. By telling him how amazing breast milk properties were, I remembered a lot of the ‘good stuff’ that gets burried under breastfeeding problems – something I see and work with daily.

So, I would like to enlighten you a little, if I may, with some of the more unusual benefits of breast milk.

Did you know?

• Your body produces colostrum (high density/low volume milk) for the first few days, to give your baby time to practice his/her suck – swallow – breath pattern. To start with your baby will suck a number of times to accumulate milk, then hold his/her breath and then swallow. The suck, swallow, breath pattern takes 3-4 days to learn. Remember, your baby has never done this before birth, so it is a learnt skill. When second time mums find their milk coming in sooner than day 4, babies often struggle with the fast flow, gulp at the breast, pull away to cope with the flow and become quite windy.
• Colostrum is a fantastic laxative which helps your baby poo. The more your baby poos, the more meconium he/she will flush out. The more meconium that is flushed out, the less likely your baby is to develop jaundice.
• Breast milk composition is designed to meet your baby’s needs. If you have a prem baby, your milk will be higher in long chain fatty acids than milk for a full term baby, for the first 6 months, as these weren’t laid down in the last trimester, due to your baby’s early delivery. So your baby still gets everything he/she needs through your breast milk, even though he/she is out of your body. Isn’t that amazing?
• Breast milk has antimicrobial qualities that kill off harmful bacteria. This property of breast milk allows you to store breast milk in the fridge for up to 8 days and also means that you only have to wash the bottles in hot soapy water, rinse and dry with paper towel before using. In short, it keeps longer and requires no sterilizing. (applies to healthy, full term babies when storing milk at home. be sure to wash hands well before expresing.)
• Due to the antimicrobial properties of breast milk, milk can be kept at room temerature for up to 6 hours, when kept out of direct sunlight and in temperatures of 79F (25C). This means that should you prefer not to breastfeed in public, you can simply express and take the milk out with you. Keep it in a cooler bag to be safe – but it is so much easier than most mums think.)
• Breast milk has potent analgesic, so your baby gets natural pain killers to help with the trauma of birth, a sore tummy and so on.

You see, now that I have started I am struggling to stop!

I hope this inspires you to. If you are breastfeeding, you are doing a great thing.

If you weren’t able to breastfeed, know that you did the best for your baby with the advice that was available to you and touch base with me when you have your next, so I can help you too.

If you need some practical help, have a look at my breastfeeding eBooks.

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