Breastfeeding! Part One

'I'm not telling you it's going to be easy - I'm telling you it's going to be worth it.'

-Art Williams

I am not attacking anyone who chooses to bottle feed, I am just trying to tell you the benefits, make your own decision after that. 

I am so passionate about breastfeeding. It's a known fact breast is best. Even companies that sell formula milk will tell you this. A popular baby formula in the UK is Aptamil and when you first go onto their website they tell you breast is best before you click continue to find out more information on their brand. 

I am currently pregnant with my 3rd child and will be choosing to breastfeed again but before I go on to tell you about the benefits of breastfeeding I want to take you back 9 and a half years to when I had my son at the age of 16. 

Now yes I know having a baby at 16 sounds so bad! I was a very naive teenager when it came to sex and put my trust in the boyfriend at the time and ended up pregnant. Even though I didn't know much about contraception and sex at the time, one thing I was certain on was I was against abortion. So once I found out I was pregnant it was decided I was keeping the baby, yes it would be hard, yes I would get attacked for being such a young mother and yes it would slow down my studies. I didn't have my own home or a loving husband but hey these things happen you just have to make the most of it.  

With me being so young it meant so were my friends. So to them breastfeeding for just 'totally gross'. I did my research and realised it was for the best so I decided I was going to breastfeed, I didn't really care what others thought. But now I am older I do believe this stigma of breastfeeding being an offensive thing sticks into people's mind. Which is totally stupid, it's what they were made for! 

I gave birth to my son, explained I wanted to try breastfeeding and the midwives helped, giving me tips and advice. It was tough. Then the first night after I had my son I started shaking, I guessed it was just my body completely exhausted for giving birth, then the next day I began to fit and then the day after (or might of been the same day, very bad memory) I had a huge fit and pretty much died. That was fun! (I had contracted an infection from the hospital and it shut all my organs down, doctors had no idea what to do but my Nan brought in two people to give me a blessing and I was back! But that's a story I will have to save for another time).

Right, so far you have read that my start to breastfeeding wasn't exactly easy but I carried on. A few hours after I died a new midwife came in to introduce herself to me. She was from Liverpool and if you know anyone from Liverpool you know how straight forward they can be. I was crying my eyes out, saying I just can't do it. I can't breastfeed it's too hard. It hurt. It does hurt at the beginning but come on ladies you've just given birth! This is a stroll in the park compared! But this midwife just asked me outright, 'Do you want to breastfeed?' I replied yes and that was it, she became almost a bully! Haha She pushed and pushed me. And boy was I thankful afterwards! 

So now you know how hard my start to breastfeeding was I think most of you don't really have much excuse! Excluding the rare cases where it is physically impossible for the mother to breastfeed.

I will be doing a part two for this article going more in depth but for the time being how about a list. We love lists! Some benefits and facts to breastfeeding. 

• They recommend it! Even the formula companies will tell you that breast is best! Simple.
• Breastfeeding promotes bonding between Mum and baby. This is so true with my children, I have such a connection with them and strongly believe it is partly due to breastfeeding.
• Satisfies baby's emotional needs.The cuddles baby receives when breastfeeding makes a world of difference to the child. I know almost all parents try their best. But it can be tempting as they get older to just prop the bottle up or get baby to hold it themselves. Breastfeeding means baby gets two in one, food and cuddles! What's not to love. 
• Breastfed babies cannot be over fed meaning that it lowers the chance of obesity. Formula babies can be over fed and it's so difficult to know if baby is actually hunger or being greedy sometimes when it comes to formula. 
• Lowers the chance of mother developing breast cancer. Also if baby is a girl it lowers their chance of developing it in later life! Also lowers the chance of developing ovarian cancer too!  
• Higher I.Q! Who doesn't want to increase their child's chances of being brainy! Breastfed babies have a higher I.Q on average by 5 points! My son was breastfed for 14 months and his reading age is more than 3 years above that of the average child. Also he is way above average in Maths. I'll happily take some of the credit for that. Haha. 
• No prepping! Screaming baby, bottle not cool enough, the stress that goes with it. Breastfeed! Milk on tap, right amount and right temperature. Easy life :) 
• Breast milk contains immunities to diseases and aids in the development of baby's immune system. 
• Breast milk is more digestible than formula milk. Also leading to less chance of baby becoming constipated.
• Lowers chance of baby developing asthma.
• Protects against childhood Crohn's disease.
• Lowers chance of child developing diabetes. Chances of it much higher with formula fed babies.
• Breastfeeding lowers chance of child developing allergies. Formula increases it.
• I could go on forever about the things it lowers the chances of, by a lot! 

Okay so I think for the time being I have given a nice little selection of the benefits of breastfeeding for your baby. 

Now just a couple of my favorite 'selfish' benefits to bring the article to a close for the time being while I work on a more in depth part two. 

• MONEY!! You save a fortune breastfeeding, have you seen the price of formula these days?! I don't know how people manage it to be honest. Think of the money! 
• Proven that breastfeeding helps your uterus contract quicker getting it back to it's normal pre pregnancy size! Flatter tummy quicker ladies?!
• Helps you to lose the baby weight you may have gained.
• Big boobs!! If you are like me and were not blessed with a big chest, breastfeeding is like a free boob job! It's awesome. With my son I went from a B cup to a DD. It was awesome! 
• You get a few more calories ;) You are allowed more calories when breastfeeding, but don't over do it! 
• Last but not least, one of my favourites, sleep! I was able to sleep longer simply because I didn't need to mess about in the middle of the night prepping a bottle. At the time co sleeping was allowed and I would simply pop my son onto my breast, lie on the double bed with him and go back to sleep while he fed. Was a life saver. 

Unfortunately I am unable to make a fancy TV advert of me running around with my flat tummy, huge boobs, money in my pocket and a happy baby on my arm to promote breastfeeding. Breastfeeding is simply promoted on health, nobody gets lots of money for selling it. So unfortunately it's all the formula companies that do the fancy adverts that convince you to buy formula. But I promise you BREAST IS BEST!! Please consider it.

One last thing - If you do choose to breastfeed I recently found out hospitals are telling you it's fine to feed baby formula in the beginning and try breastfeeding. DO NOT FALL FOR THIS! Your body makes milk to order! If you are giving formula on the side it will never produce the complete amount your baby needs. Don't lose faith, the first couple of days are hard but baby is getting what he/she needs from your boobies. Just be patient, keep at it and you'll be full of milk in no time.