|
Breastfeeding isn’t only about
providing mother’s milk. While
seldom recognized in literature,
doctors’ advice or common
conversation, there’s a whole
lot more to breastfeeding than
nutrition and immunity.
Breastfeeding has taken quite a
bashing over the last century.
In order to rebuild acceptance
of breastfeeding, breastfeeding
advocates have focused on the
importance its nutritive and
immune support roles. But
breastfeeding is designed to be
much more than just providing
food — it is a time for nursing,
a time for comfort and
nurturing. This is a time for
studying and memorizing each
other’s faces, for speaking or
singing to your baby and
developing her trust and
nonverbal communication.
Babies clearly seek nursing in
order to ease the pain of a bump
or illness, to relieve stress or
to regain security after being
frightened. It’s obviously
effective. And whenever allowed,
babies usually engage in comfort
nursing long after nutrition
needs have been satiated,
deepening the soothing, bonding
and educational relationship
between mother and child.
Not all of these benefits are
exclusive to breastfeeding
mothers and babies.
Bottlefeeding mothers can
achieve many of these benefits,
as well. It’s possible to
“nurse” your baby, whether at
bottle or at breast.
“Nursing” is more than
breastfeeding
In your arms or snuggled
alongside you, your baby is
nurtured by the snuggly warmth
of your body and comforted by
your familiar scent
(pheromones). He hears the beat
of your heart and the sound of
your voice. His neurons and
hormones program him to desire
and flourish in this environment
— a means of ensuring his
protection, survival and optimal
development. And when allowed,
your baby’s powerful imprint on
your pheromonal messages is
second only to his programmed
need and yearning for sucking.
Science has demonstrated how a
baby’s optimal development
occurs through his neurological
and hormonal responses to these
planned inputs. Providing these
stimuli for your baby means
providing the advantages, as
well.
Comfort nursing
Babies often engage in comfort
nursing (also known as
non-nutritive sucking) well
beyond their need for taking in
milk for nourishment. Given the
opportunity, most babies will
comfort nurse – and for baby’s
benefit, it’s a good thing.
Comfort nursing satiates your
baby’s needs for soothing,
familiarity and educational
parent-child exchanges. Your
baby needs to nurse for
security, positive hormonal
releases, bonding and company.
The importance of sucking to a
baby’s comfort and well being is
well demonstrated. In a Chicago
sudden infant death syndrome
(SIDS) study, bottle-fed infants
who enjoyed the added use of a
pacifier (which makes up for
comfort nursing time) had only
one-third the rate of SIDS as
those who did not use pacifiers,
and those who breastfed had only
one-fifth the rate of SIDS.
EEG studies of babies’ brains
while sucking at the breast
demonstrate increased activity
in areas of the brain that
govern alertness and attention
as well as in areas that control
the cycle of sleeping and
waking. Bottle-feeding produces
similar but smaller changes in
brain patterns.
Many babies who are fed on
strict schedules or quickly
removed from the breast or
bottle as soon as active feeding
is done will seek a thumb or
finger to suck on or take to a
pacifier. This demonstrates
their strong inborn requirement
for more comfort sucking. Allow
your baby to continue to
breastfeed as long as she wishes
for comfort. Bottlefeeding
parents can offer comfort
nursing by holding their babies
and allowing them to continue
sucking on a bottle or pacifier.
Sucking relieves pain
and soothes babies
Researchers have shown that
breastfeeding reduces pain for
babies. A recent assessment
measured a great reduction in
babies’ pain during medical
procedures if they breastfed
during the procedure. Some
reduction in pain was
demonstrated with pacifier
sucking, but simply holding a
baby in his mother’s arms did
not provide measurable relief.
Clearly, babies are meant to
return to their mothers after a
bump or to demand frequent
nursing when ill. When your baby
is sick, the soothing qualities
of being held and sucking is
both healing and helps relieve
symptoms for your infant.
Nursing keeps baby close to you
so you can best monitor your
baby’s status. Quick, safe, and
easy, nursing your baby (holding
her and allowing her to suck) is
meant to soothe the physical
pains of babyhood.
Sucking promotes sleep
Another powerful benefit of
breastfeeding (and sucking) is
its promotion of sleep in baby
and in a sleepy mommy. The peace
and quiet allow dad to sleep,
too.
Some parenting “experts”
recommend withholding from your
baby all the comforts that would
normally induce sleep, including
pacifiers, rocking and allowing
him to fall asleep at the breast
or bottle. These same “experts”
then have the opportunity to
teach tough-love tactics, which
attempt to coerce your
perplexed, forsaken baby to
sleep without any of his natural
tools.
All the crying that ensues
produces stress hormone releases
in your baby, discouraging sleep
until sheer exhaustion takes
over. And after all is said and
done, you are left to try to get
to sleep with your own stress
hormones surging through your
bloodstream, as well.
The reality is that babies come
with a simple and wonderful
program in place for falling
asleep: breastfeeding. A
mother’s body passes comforting
hormones into her own body and
into her baby’s milk in response
to the suckling. Babies release
their own comforting hormones,
as well, during parental contact
and especially when sucking.
Together, the warmth, security,
full tummy, tiredness from
sucking effort and comforting
hormones induce sleep naturally.
Nursing your baby to sleep,
whether at the breast or the
bottle, is a great way to
achieve these effects.
The benefits of
skin-to-skin contact
Many studies demonstrate the
benefits of skin-to-skin contact
in babies. One measurable
benefit of such contact is
increased oxytocin releases in
both you and your infant.
Regular, high oxytocin levels
not only comfort you and your
baby but they serve to increase
your sense of satisfaction with
motherhood.
Higher levels of oxytocin,
especially when created through
frequent or prolonged body
contact, encourage other kinds
of positive hormonal
interactions to occur as well.
These provide physical rewards
to protect the desires for
maintaining close family
relationships.
Long-term benefits of regularly
high oxytocin levels include a
reduction in heart disease risk
factors for you and your baby.
Your child may enjoy lower blood
pressure and healthier arteries
throughout his life as a result.
Furthermore, regular high
oxytocin actually reduces the
severity of your child’s
lifelong reactions to stress.
Preemies are the most often
studied in terms of skin-to-skin
contact, since they are the most
accessible to observe during
their stays in neonatal
intensive care units, and
measurable results are often
quite pronounced in this most
vulnerable age group. However,
this certainly doesn’t mean that
preemies are the only babies who
benefit from skin-to-skin
contact!
In
premature newborns, skin-to-skin
contact leads to superior
temperature control, lower heart
rates and life-saving oxygen
regulation. The hospital stays
of preemies who receive
skin-to-skin contact are much
shorter. Milk production in
mothers is greatly improved when
they share this contact with
their preemies, and their
attachment and maternal
behaviors are enhanced.
“Kangaroo care preemies” (those
kept close to mother’s skin and
breastfed when possible) are
found to gain twice as much
weight per day as incubator
babies.
The benefits are clear: snuggle
your baby. Breastfeed
frequently; if you bottle feed,
don’t prop your baby’s bottle
and walk away. Your baby’s
health will benefit!
Seeing eye to eye
Feeding time is also designed to
encourage your baby’s reception
of positive activities such as
studying your face, exchanging
expressions with you and sharing
verbal cues. Not only does this
deepen the attachment between
the two of you, but much of your
baby’s early verbal, emotional
and social learning is meant to
occur during this focused time.
Cute little ornaments hanging
over cribs are meant to provide
entertainment as well as
practice in focusing on and
reaching for objects. Your face
peering down at your baby during
a feeding offers a much superior
form of these same rewards.
Holding, rocking and
cuddling
The need for frequent
breastfeeding throughout the day
and night ensures that babies
gets their fill of holding,
rocking and cuddling. Natural,
on-cue breastfeeding ensures
that mothers will take the time
with sufficient frequency to
provide ample nurturing
attention. Bottlefeeding parents
can do this, too, by making
feeding times cherishable times
and remembering to hold their
babies frequently throughout the
day.
While the analysis didn’t
measure breastfeeding, one
hospital study compared the
responses of newborns to
standard and what they call
“enhanced” care. Newborns were
rocked, cuddled, offered verbal
and visual stimulation and
allowed to suck on a pacifier as
much as they desired. In
comparison with infants who
received standard hospital care,
these babies demonstrated
superior temperature regulation
and respiratory rates; far fewer
heart murmurs were detected,
fewer sucking and swallowing
difficulties were seen and
almost no crying was found.
“Nursing” matters
Lest you think this “nursing”
your baby sounds sweet but
offers intangible rewards, look
again at all the benefits of
holding your baby and allowing
her to suck at will.
nourishment
comfort
easing of pain and discomfort
protection during illness
building of bonding and
attachment with parents
social development
inducing sleep
building of trust in parents
visual development
development of communication
skills
building brain organization
toward positive stress
handling throughout life
reduced heart disease risk
factors
lowered risk of SIDS (Sudden
Infant Death Syndrome)
Breastfeeding provides full
nutrition and amazing immune
protection for baby, but that’s
only the beginning.
Nursing your baby – holding her
close, letting her suck at will,
and offering skin-to-skin
contact frequently throughout
the day – provides benefits for
both breastfed and bottlefed
babies. And what a wonderful
beginning it can be!
|