by Bindu Thomas Thycad

Created on: September 17, 2008

The ultimate decision on breastfeeding your baby is vested upon you, as a mother, and as a parent. It is your right. To be on the defensive side in overcoming the objections, you should have a knowledge which is scientifically sound, and a strong will power to go across the river.

The family is yours, even though the members have a strong influence on us both positively and negatively. You can listen to their view points, but you are the decision maker for your child. You need a lot of support from your husband as well if you are facing problems from other members of the family. But you should be able to convince with the correct information, which is beneficial for your new born baby.

The decision to breast feed or not is usually formed before the birth of the baby. The attitude could be influenced by your previous encounters with breast feeding mothers, or role models from within or outside the family, your culture, your knowledge on advantages and benefits of breast feeding for both mother and the baby, your job patterns and time available, etc. However, the birth experience (labor) and baby's condition also can affect your decision and choice of breast feeding.

Under normal conditions, you could convince about the following advantages of breast feeding:

Easily available
Promotes emotional bonding between the mother and baby.
Right temperature.
Suitable to the baby's digestive system, which is lighter to baby's stomach.
Provides natural immunity and some resistance to infections.
Convenient- no need to carry milk powder and hot water.
Also it was found that babies who are breast fed possess a higher level of I.Q than those who are bottle fed.
Helps in reducing the extra fat which was accumulated during pregnancy.
Protection from breast cancer.
Helps in contracting uterus and thus control bleeding.
Contraceptive benefits, if you are exclusively breast feeding your baby.

Only for those babies who have lactose intolerance (a natural component in breast feed) need to be thought of other alternative choices for feeding. And for the working mothers, who wish to continue breast feeding, need to find out ways by which they could feed their baby.

Even if it the delivery was a Caesarian section, the mother could start breast feeding as soon as she is out from anesthesia.

As it is always said, "Breast feed is the best feed for your baby", which is the truth!

Learn more about this author, Bindu Thomas Thycad.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.