08/01/2021
August is national and world breastfeeding awareness month. During this month I will be sharing educational resources about breastfeeding, pumping, weaning, what to expect while breastfeeding, tips and tricks and stories to help spread awareness.
Why do we need Breastfeeding awareness month?
To promote the importance of breastfeeding. The American Academy of Pediatrics and the World Health Organization (WHO) both recommended that infants be exclusively breastfed the first 6 months. WHO and the CDC recommends breastfeeding for 2 years. Even with these recommendations only 1 in 4 infants are exclusively breastfed til 6 months and 60% of moms stop breastfeeding earlier than planned.
Who benefits from breastfeeding?
Both mom and baby! Your body tailor makes milk that changes as your baby grows to meet his/her nutritional needs. It also helps protect you and baby against some short/long term illnesses. Mother’s that breastfeed their babies have lower risk of breast cancer, ovarian cancer, type 2 diabetes and high blood pressure. Babies that are breastfed have a lower risk of asthma, obesity, type 1 diabetes, respiratory disease, ear infections, sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), gastrointestinal infection and necrotizing enterocolitis for premature infants.
Did you know?
-You can burn between 500-600 calories a day breastfeeding
-Breastmilk is a live substance that contains live cells, including stem cells.
-Breastmilk contains antibodies and live white blood cells which helps your baby fight against infections.
-Colostrum ( liquid gold!!) contains proteins that coat your baby’s intestinal track to protect from harmful bacteria.
-Your brain releases the hormones prolactin and oxytocin during breastfeeding, which helps you to bond with your baby and ease those normal feelings of stress and anxiety.
-The smell and taste of breastmilk changes depending on the food you eats.
-When starting solids instead of using cows milk in recipes you can use your breastmilk.
-Breastmilk is not always white! It can appear blue, green, yellow (gold 😉) and even pink.
-The size of your breast does not have anything to do with the amount of milk you produce.
-Moms of preemies have breast milk with more protein, fat, and other minerals for bone and brain growth as well as the most protective factors to prevent illness and infection.
-Premature babies that are breastfed in the first 28 days of life have better brain development by the time their original birth date arrives.
