Being a Mother of a an 11-month old baby boy, there are several breastfeeding myths that i have come across, I have listed a few. Breastfeeding is good for your baby because the milk has nutrients that help the baby grow well.
The Myths are:

1. My breasts will sag if I nurse
Even if this were true, it is a very sad reason for not wanting to nurse. Breastfeeding does not determine when your breasts will sag on the contrary, pregnancy itself often causes your breasts to sag.Breasts are more than a decoration to sit on women's chests to be admired. The original, and only important, function of breasts is to produce and deliver the optimal food for human babies.

2. A mother only needs to nurse four to six times a day to maintain good milk supply.

Research shows that when a mother breast feeds early and often, an average of 9.9 times a day in the first two weeks, her milk production is greater, her infant gains more weight and she continues breastfeeding for a longer period. Milk production has been shown to be related to feeding frequency, and milk supply declines when feedings are infrequent or restricted.

3. It is the amount of milk that a baby takes in (quantitative), not whether it is human milk or formula (qualitative), that determines how long a baby can go between feedings.

Breastfed babies have faster gastric emptying times than fomula-fed babies-approximately 1.5 hours versus up to 4 hours-due to the smaller size of the protein molecules in human milk. While intake quantity is one factor in determining feeding frequency, the type of milk is equally important.

4. A mother must drink milk to make milk.

A healthy diet of vegetables, fruits, grains and proteins is all that a mother needs to provide the proper nutrients to produce milk. Calcium can he obtained from a variety of nondairy foods such as dark green vegetables, seeds, nuts and bony fish. No other mammal drinks milk to make milk.

Learn more about this author, Zipporah Kamau.
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