Breast-Feeding: Just Do It! :: Breast-Feeding Essays

Breast-Feeding: Just Do It! Who is to say that breast-feeding is the best for your baby. For years, breast-feeding tactics have been used as the best way to feed your infant. There was never any debate as to how you should feed your child, until a few years ago when artificial baby formulas were made. Now, researches have set out to figure out which way is the best for your baby. Studies upon studies have been done in search of the answer. Finally it was proven that breast-feeding, the natural way, was superior over artificial formulas. Breast-feeding is the all-natural process in which young infants get the nutritional intake that they need to survive, grow, and develop. Researchers have established that breast milk is perfectly suited to nourish infants and protect them from illness. Breast fed infants have lower rates of hospital admissions, ear infections, diarrhea, rashes, allergies, and other medical problems than bottle-fed babies (Williams). Human mothers produce many nutrients that cannot be found in formulas. The female body was made by Mother Nature to ensure the survival of mankind. "There are 4,000 species of mammals, and they all make different milk. Human milk is made for human infants and it meets all their specific nutrient needs," said Ruth Lawrence, M.D.,professor of pediatrics and obstetrics at the University of Rochester School of Medicine in Rochester, N.Y., and spokeswoman for the American Academy of Pediatrics(Williams,p.1). Breast milk is one of the few substances that is completely sterile. It is made from inside the body and no environmental factors play a role in this process(Correa,1999). From the beginning of nursing, the infant receives and important body element called colostrum(Maher,1998). The word colostrum was derived from the bacteria know as Colostridium difficile. This microbe produces a toxin that bind to walls of the body causing diarrhea or swelling of the colon. Immunoglobulins, found in colostrum, coat the exterior walls and resist the binding of the microbes(Travis,322). Colostrum also stimulates substances in the body to promote gut maturation, facilitate digestion, and stimulate passage of meconium. Colostrum is extremely concentrated with the proteins that make up immunoglobulins and secretory IgA. IgA is the maternal-specific immunogobulins that are needed for protection against environmental antigens. These substances produced by the human breast can easily be absorbed by the human infant. Complete development of the brain and nerve tissue rely on these substances(Maher,1998).