Why Should You Breastfeed?

The short answer is that you should do it so that your newest bundle of joy get the best possible nutrition available. There are very good reasons that many child development experts refer to breast milk as "liquid gold".

When you become pregnant, your body begins the production of milk. Amazingly, the milk that you will produce will be manufactured by your body specifically for the child or children you are giving birth to. What does this mean? It means that there won't be anything on the planet that could possibly give your child a better start then your own milk.

Add to that, there are so many vitamins, minerals, and other ingredients in mothers milk that we can't synthetically reproduce as of yet, some we can't even identify fully, and it's easy to see why it's the best possible nutrition.

The health benefits go beyond nutritional value though. It's the greatest bonding experience any mother could hope to have for her child, the instance of ear infection goes down dramatically, moms immune system is partially transferred through breast milk, enabling the child to have a better defense from disease, and so on.

There are even health benefits for mom! Breastfeeding helps reduce the risk of breast cancer, and potentially other cancers. And, it helps get the uterus back down to normal size, shortening recovery time after having given birth.

Can it be uncomfortable, or even painful? I won't lie to you, yes it can in the beginning. But, the potential pain and/or discomfort isn't too bad, and it's fairly short lived. Hey, you just gave birth right? So, this should be a piece of cake in the pain/discomfort department! There are plenty of things your doctor would love to tell you about that you can do to help alleviate that discomfort, and, again, it's short lived.

The bottom line? It's worth it. It's worth it even if you and your child have a rocky start getting it going. It's worth it, even if your body isn't producing as much milk as you need it to. It's worth it to do everything you can to give your child the best start humanly possible. After all, that's what you want right? You want the absolute best for your child!