#ProudToFeed
It is fascinating how human milk is like a 3 course meal. “Taking a sample of the human milk before the baby start to feed, the milk is watery. Taking another sample after 15 minutes of breastfeeding, the milk appears like we understand milk. This part of the meal contains vitamins, minerals and everything the baby needs to develop and grow. Once the baby has finished his meal and if we take another sample, this milk will often looks kind of yellowish. It has a high fat content and gives the baby energy and weight gain.”
Breast milk is best for the baby, and the benefits of breastfeeding extend well beyond basic nutrition. In addition to containing all the vitamins and nutrients your baby needs in the first six months of life, breast milk is packed with disease-fighting substances that protect your baby from illness.
That’s one reason that most of the Pediatrics recommend exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months (although any amount of breastfeeding is beneficial), and scientific studies have shown that breastfeeding is good for the mother’s health, too.
Breastfeeding’s protection against illness lasts beyond the baby’s breastfeeding stage, too. Studies have shown that breastfeeding can reduce a child’s risk of developing certain childhood cancers. Breastfeeding may also help children avoid a host of diseases that strike later in life, such as type 1 and type 2 diabetes, high cholesterol, and inflammatory bowel disease. In fact, preemies given breast milk as babies are less likely to have high blood pressure by the time they’re teenagers.
For babies who aren’t breastfed, researchers have documented a link between lack of breastfeeding and later development of Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis.
Inspite of all these benefits, today most women are head driven than emotion driven. Everything needs to be questioned and sometimes women even forget about their gut feelings. As a matter of fact, when humans think of milk, they think of cow’s milk, which looks different, has a different composition and usually comes in bigger quantity then breast milk. But human body works differently. Animal babies are born mature but human babies are born immature. “While animal milk is made to give the babies energy for strong muscles, human babies need a lot of elements to develop and grow physically and so the milk is different in composition. Human milk is very special. It looks different compared to animal milk and it is ever changing, tailor made and living. It has so many living components, necessary for the growth and development of the baby.”
This World Breastfeeding Week theme as suggests for concerted global action to support women to combine breastfeeding and work. Whether a woman is working in the formal, non-formal or home setting, it is necessary that she is empowered in claiming her and her baby’s right to breastfeed.
In India as far as breastfeeding is concern, is that there is lack of nursing room in public place in India. Women here are very guarded and shy, but the fact is where do moms go if they need to feed their kids at a public place. A lot of malls now have nursing rooms but that’s it. Mothers who feed in public do face a lot of discrimination. While India is still far from such bills what is important is to urge mothers to breastfeed and not to shy away from taking their kids out with the lack of infrastructure in feeding facilities.
SPARSH (HSCWS) 