Breastfeeding tips | Benefits of Breastfeeding | Breast milk feeding

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Breastfeeding tips Benefits of Breastfeeding
Breast milk feeding

• Breast milk is a combination of macronutrients,
  micronutrients, bioactive components, growth
  factors, and immunological factors. This article
  is going to explain benefits of breastfeeding to
  mothers and tips for breastfeeding

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Factors about Breastfeeding

• Breastfeeding has reached its new low in the 21st
  century. According to WHO, the majority of
  countries have an exclusive breastfeeding rate of
  below 50 in the first 6 months, which is the
  2025 target of the World Health Assembly.  The
  gravity of the situation could be estimated by
  the fact that now we celebrate breastfeeding week
  from 1st August to 8th August every year to
  increase awareness. The evidence-based research
  has highlighted the importance of breastfeeding
  time and again.

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• The nutrition supply in the first thousand days
  of life, starting from conception to 2nd
  birthday, lays the foundation of the long-term
  health. Breastfeeding is an essential part of
  this initial nutrition as breast milk is a
  multi-facet combination of nutrients and
  bioactive markers that are essential for a
  newborn in the initial 6 months of life.
  Nutritional deficiencies early in life can result
  in long-lasting effects that can pass on to
  generations, said Dr. Manjari Chandra, Senior
  Nutrition Advisor at IVH SeniorCare.

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Benefits of Breastfeeding to mothers

• Breastfeeding has always seen as a boon to the
  newborns and maternal benefits were not realized
  until recently. Dr. Manjari Chandra added New
  evidence has suggested that breastfeeding is
  equally important to mothers and provides many
  short-term and long-term benefits. Immediate and
  early benefits for mothers include postpartum
  weight loss and mother-infant bonding. Pregnancy
  results in many physiological changes to support
  the new life in the womb. 

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• During pregnancy, the body goes in a
  hyperlipidemic and insulin resistant state, which
  increases the chances of developing
  cardiovascular diseases and type-2 diabetes later
  in the life. Breastfeeding has shown to decrease
  the risk of long-term metabolic and
  cardiovascular diseases and is associated with
  412 reduction in the risk of type-2 diabetes.
• .

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Why exclusive breastfeeding for the first six
months?

• Breast milk is a combination of macronutrients,
  micronutrients, bioactive components, growth
  factors, and immunological factors. The
  combination is a biological fluid that helps in
  ideal physical and mental growth and diminishes
  the infant programming of late metabolic disease.
• Children who are not breastfed exclusively are
  believed to be prone to infections and have a low
  IQ. They have a diminished capacity to learn and
  perform poorly in school in comparison to their
  peers who are breastfed exclusively in the first
  six months of life.   According to WHO data, more
  than 20 million infants are born weighing less
  than 2.5kg per year, sadly over 96 of them in
  developing countries. These infants are at
  increased risk of early growth retardation,
  infectious disease, developmental delay and death
  during infancy and childhood. 

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• There is enough evidence that highlight the
  importance of breastfeeding in the first 24 hours
  of life in these infants. The infants who are
  breastfed in the first 24 hours show a lower
  neonatal mortality than the infants who are
  breastfed after 24 hours. According to Dr. Arun
  Gupta a senior pediatrician and coordinator of
  Breastfeeding Promotion Network of India (BPNI),
  "Breastfeeding is essential to child health,
  survival and development, yet in India 3 out 5
  women are not able to initiate breastfeeding
  within an hour of birth. Only 1 out of 2 women
  can practice exclusive breastfeeding for the
  first six months. This happens because women
  continue to face multiple barriers to
  breastfeeding at home, workplace, and hospitals.
  Success lies in removing the barriers which can
  be done by governments and private healthcare
  providers"

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Nutrition requirements of a lactating mother

• A lactating mother requires an additional 500
  kcal/day. When mothers do not maintain the extra
  requirements in their diet, body stores are used
  to produce milk resulting in post-partum weight
  loss. Dr. Chandra said, Lactating mothers are
  advised to continue with the prenatal vitamin
  supplements daily. Vitamins are secreted in the
  breast milk and maternal deficiency affects the
  breast milk directly.  Vegetarian mothers also
  require the supplementation of vitamin D, B12,
  and calcium due to decreased intake from a vegan
  diet.