Breast Milk Chronicles: Is Breast Truly Best? Surprising Advice to Make the Right Choice
The Truth on Breastfeeding Benefits: For Baby and for Mom
Breast Milk is the best thing for your baby nutritionally. Nothing against formula, but formula is literally science’s attempt to reconstruct human breast milk in a lab. Breast Milk is tailor made nutrition for your baby, to provide them everything they need and changes as they grow. It is a complete food with fat, protein and carbs, as well as your newborn baby’s sole source of water for hydration. As truly amazing as it is for your baby, producing that breast milk comes at a cost to moms.
It’s well established that breastfeeding is hard work. I remember staring at my wonderful, sleeping husband at 2 in the morning because I had to wake up to pump so I could establish a supply. Breastfeeding takes persistence, and determination to establish and maintain. It takes practice and a ton of time. And even if all advice is followed, lots of women still have the misfortune of low supplies and issues along the way. With all the struggles to nurse and breastfeed, how beneficial is breastfeeding truly? What are the benefits short term and long term? Are there benefits to mom that make it worthwhile?
Let’s start with a quick myth buster.
Long term benefits look a little hazy…
We have all read the articles that breastfed babies are smarter and thinner and healthier. These thin, smart, healthy super babies sound just about perfect. But my personal data-driven hero, Emily Oster, debunks a ton of these myths in her book, Cribsheet. For any mom who similarly loves to learn the cold, hard facts in a data-driven manner, I highly recommend Cribsheet as well as her first book, Expecting Better. They are incredible resources.
In her book, Cribsheet, she challenges the idea that breastfed wonder-babies turn into wonder-adults because, to Emily Oster’s point, there is no real way to know. There are plenty of studies out there that pool large swaths of people who have been formula-fed and milk-fed to determine where they are as adults. These studies overwhelmingly find that milk-fed people are thinner, smarter, and healthier than those who were formula-fed.
The golden standard for comparing outcomes is to have a randomized controlled study with isolated subjects. That way, scientists can simply witness the outcomes of two different courses of action without interference of any outside forces. Also, this is not just observed once, but many times with a wide pool of diverse subjects.
Unfortunately, that simply cannot happen for analyzing breastfed babies and formula-fed babies into their childhood. So many other factors get in the way. Factors like the parents’ income rate, the children’s pre-established health history, the foods offered to the child as they grew up and offerings of the area the child grew up in are just a few of the varieties children face in these studies.
Statistically, breastfed babies come from families who may be more well off. Moms who come from higher income-generating households are generally granted more parental leave to bond with their baby and support their breastfeeding ambitions. Not all moms are able to have that benefit with their baby. Some moms have minimal parental leave and are forced to rush back to work after only a few weeks. In those cases, setting up an established breastfeeding supply may not be possible for that family. Formula may be the best way for their baby to meet their nutritional needs.
Simply looking at those two situations, those two families, you can draw possible conclusions on other areas of their lives. One family may have more of their budget towards extracurricular resources like tutoring, sports, hobbies, and healthy, organic foods. Another family may be making ends meet, but not have enough of their budget left over for extra schooling, home cooked and sports equipment.
Those supplemental areas in a child’s life will have a huge impact on the child’s health, intelligence, emotional development, and basically everything else those articles say breastfeeding has an effect on.
So with that in mind, is it the breast milk that makes children smarter, or thinner? Or is in the more affluent upbringing? It goes without saying that it may be other external factors playing the bigger role in the child’s development.
The fact of the matter is, there is no way to have a randomized controlled study to analyze the true long term effects breastfeeding has on a child. Those benefits may simply be short term benefits while the baby is drinking the breast milk.
Finally, the Benefits to Breastfeeding
Does all this doubt on long-term benefits mean breastfeeding isn’t great for your child? Absolutely not! I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Breast milk is perfect for your baby. Even short term, breast milk can be a huge benefit to your little one in their most vulnerable time.
Breast milk is the tailor-made best combination of macro and micro nutrition for your little one. For their first full year in life, parents are instructed to give their babies breast milk or formula to meet nutritional needs because it is exactly what they need to grow. As awesome and complex as formula is, it’s scientist’s best attempt at recreating breast milk, because breast milk is nature's most perfect food for babies. Breast milk contains live white blood cells to promote healthy growth and generate new cells quickly for your baby’s growth.
Breast milk is also an amazing tool to keep your baby healthy when they are so young and vulnerable. It contains antibodies made from the mom’s body to protect your baby from illnesses early on. When a Mom gets sick, her body creates antibodies for the baby’s breast milk. So even with Mom being inches from the baby’s face, the baby is protected from whatever illness mom may be contagious with!
Per numerous publications, breastfed babies have been shown to develop fewer allergic reactions, and fewer gastrointestinal disorders. That is a huge benefit when they are so tiny and new. Anything to make those early days easier for you and for baby as they work to gain weight and get accustomed to this strange new world they have been thrust into
Plus, there are benefits for mom as well. Breastfeeding has been shown to have a lower risk of breast cancer for moms. Breastfeeding has shown to reduce the risk of breast cancer by 4.3% for every 12 months of breastfeeding. Additionally there’s a 7% reduction for each birthed child. This doesn’t mean breastfeeding mom’s are in the clear from ever getting breast cancer, but every little bit helps, right?
In addition, breastfeeding is fantastic for recovery after birth. It may be uncomfortable getting started breastfeeding, but postpartum, breastfeeding stimulates the uterus to contract, which helps the organ to shrink back to it’s normal size and can help reduce bleeding.
So, should I breastfeed?
There is an immense amount of pressure out there on women to breastfeed. If I hear “breast is best” one more time, my eyes may roll themselves out of my head. I think everyone should know the facts going in and make the decision that is right for their family and their situation. All of the forces that push women to breastfeed and cling to these magical benefits are reading from skewed statistics and old study results. It really comes down to what YOU want to do. There is more to breastfeeding than just the stats on it, it’s the experience as well.
I tried to breastfeed my little guy. He was never really able to latch, so I became an exclusive pumper. I felt like I had more of a relationship with my pumps than I did my baby. Pumping sucked up most of the short time I had during his naps, so I rarely had time to get anything done, let alone have a moment to myself. As much work as it was to pump at all hours for his breast milk, I don’t regret my breastfeeding journey one bit. It felt amazing to be able to do what I did for my little bean boy. Every bottle I made for him, every bag I filled with breast milk, I also filled with my pride that I could give him one more bottle of milk for him to drink. We tried formula early on and he was clear on his preference of breast milk. Providing him with that made me so happy. I also loved that I could hand that bottle off to his dad so he could also bond with giving our Bean his beloved milk.
The fact of the matter is breastfeeding is a choice. It’s a beautiful thing but a ton of work. It’s amazing for your baby short-term but its effects are likely to wear off as they wean.
Per everything else with raising a family, look at your family, your situation and decide what is best for you. You were made to have those mom-senses, so trust them. They’re right. Make the decision that benefits you, your baby, and your family the best. Then, surround yourself with people who will be supportive of whichever you choose.
