by Lisa Morgan

Created on: May 03, 2009   Last Updated: May 13, 2009

As a first time mother, many women agonize over whether or not to breastfeed. There are strong opinions on both sides of the issue, among them are privacy, decency in public, losing an aspect of freedom, the health of the newborn, the comfort of the mother, the feelings of the father, the family and friends all become tangled up in this one issue. For such a simple act, the quagmire of opinion and information can be completely overwhelming in the new and uncharted territory of motherhood. There is no right or wrong to this question and the only true answer is doing what makes you feel best. Whatever your final decision is, you should be able to feel good about it and not let if affect your ability to bond with your newborn, which is much more important than whether or not you breastfeed.

As a mother of five who breastfeed all of her children, I will give you the best answer as to why I did, pure laziness. Caring and nurturing children is hard, time intensive, demanding work, and anything that can make that easier should be embraced and encouraged, and breastfeeding can make those first months much easier. Again, breastfeeding may not be for everyone, and there are some very good reasons why a woman may decide against it, there are alternatives that are nutritionally sound and readily available and just because I did, is no reason to insist that everyone do the same. What I am going to do is share with you why I did and perhaps bring up reasons you may not have ever thought of while attempting to decide if this feeding method is right for you.

Breast milk is ready-made, always the right temperature, and perfectly balanced for your infant's nutritional needs. When it is 3:00 a.m. the last thing anyone wants to do is stumble around a dark house, half asleep and make a bottle while your baby cries because it's hungry. When you breastfeed, no matter the time or what is going on all you have to do is pick up the baby and you are ready to feed your bundle of joy. There is no chance of you mixing the formula wrong, it being to hot or cold, that there are bottles clean and ready, or worry if you got all the excess air out of the bottle, you simply feed the baby.

Breastfeeding cuts down on the amount of housework you have to do. When you breastfeed you don't have to worry about washing bottles, nipples and all the paraphernalia that goes along with it. There are no extra trips to the store to buy formula and will also save you a great deal of money by not

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