How do you measure the peace of mind of having a healthy baby who is developing optimally? Where do you factor in the financial burden of formula prices and increased medical costs?
Public health agencies advocate for breastfeeding because of its well-documented health advantages to babies, but they fail to convey to individual mothers and families the potential emotional impact of this very crucial infant-feeding decision. In Western society, the decision about breast or bottle is still seen very much as a personal choice based on convenience. The potential stress of living with a child with recurrent illnesses, or the loss of the unique bond that comes from breastfeeding, are often omitted from the decision-making process.
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How do you measure the peace of mind of having a healthy baby who is developing optimally? Where do you factor in the financial burden of formula prices and increased medical costs?
Public health agencies advocate for breastfeeding because of its well-documented health advantages to babies, but they fail to convey to individual mothers and families the potential emotional impact of this very crucial infant-feeding decision. In Western society, the decision about breast or bottle is still seen very much as a personal choice based on convenience. The potential stress of living with a child with recurrent illnesses, or the loss of the unique bond that comes from breastfeeding, are often omitted from the decision-making process.
There is much more to breastfeeding than the provision of optimal nutrition and protection from disease through mother's milk. Breastfeeding provides a unique interaction between mother and child, an automatic, skin-to-skin closeness and nurturing that bottle-feeding mothers have to work to replicate. The child's suckling at the breast produces a special hormonal milieu for the mother. Prolactin, the milk-making hormone, appears to produce a special calmness in mothers. Breastfeeding mothers have been shown to have a less intense response to adrenaline (Altemus 1995).
This calming effect is hard to measure in a society largely unsupportive of breastfeeding such as the United States, where breastfeeding beyond the early weeks is not the norm. Mothers who try to breastfeed in this climate often experience physical and emotional problems. These problems result from a lack of breastfeeding role models among family and friends, and are compounded by the easy availability of formula and a lack of access to knowledgeable and supportive health care professionals.
Even if a mother overcomes physical problems, she may still encounter negative comments, such as "Are you still nursing?" or "Your milk may not be strong enough — why don't you add formula?" Or her employer may make it impossible for her to continue breastfeeding on returning to work. Or she may be harassed for breastfeeding in public. No wonder that few mothers get to fully experience the relaxing effects of breastfeeding.
New motherhood is a time fraught with emotion. The baby blues are common, often exacerbated by lack of support and a sense of isolation. The role of breastfeeding in postpartum emotional upheavals has not been well studied, but breastfeeding mothers with depression need treatment just as much as any other mother. Such women present a unique challenge to health care professionals. Since medications may pass into breast milk, many physicians believe the safest solution is to wean the child. However, in most cases of depression, women do better if they continue to breastfeed. Unfortunately, too often physicians insist that mothers wean their child in order to take antidepressant medicines.
A review of the literature, however, has demonstrated that several antidepressants pose minimal, if any, risk to the nursing child. A mother who feels that her nursing relationship with her child is the only thing going right in her life can now continue to breastfeed while receiving appropriate medications for her depression.
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