The Simple Joys of Breastfeeding

There are numerous reasons that I breastfeed. On the more technical side, I have a list of reasons that made this a common sense decision. Of course I was going to breastfeed. If I had the chance to give my child something that would decrease his chance of ear infections, severe lower respiratory tract infections, and asthmas or give him something that increases his chance of obesity, type 1 and 2 diabetes, and even worse-SIDS. Which would I choose? http://www.ahrq.gov/clinic/tp/brfouttp.htm

If I decided to go a route that made my chances of getting type 2 diabetes, breast cancer and ovarian cancer go up instead of down like women who decided to breastfeed...would that make sense? http://www.ahrq.gov/clinic/tp/brfouttp.htm

Not to me.

I do understand that some women cannot breastfeed for reasons specific to them. However, I firmly believe that MOST women can successfully breastfeed, given the right amount of support and resources. Compare the rates of women who initiate breastfeeding here in the U.S. to other places in the world and it's pretty bad. It's come up a bit, but it still has LOTS of room for improvement.

Mother's who start breastfeeding in the U.S.: 57%

Mother's who start breastfeeding in Sweden and Norway: 98%

Mother's who are still breastfeeding at 6 months or longer in the U.S.: 20% (!!!!)

Mother's who are still breastfeeding at 6 months or longer in Sweden: 53%

Norway: 50%

http://www.kellymom.com/writings/bf-numbers.html#Sweden

Still, I will say that up there with all of the goodies that breast milk carries with it, holding my baby as he falls asleep nursing just melts my heart. Knowing that my toddler (when he still nursed) would stop mid tantrum to nurse was great. The fact that nursing my child after he got a "boo-boo" would make all those tears go away made me feel good.

Breastfeeding can be rough in the beginning, especially when there is such a pressure to formula feed, when there are so many people telling you that you will probably fail...but once you succeed and breastfeeding comes naturally to you, all the simple pleasures that come along with it seem even more worth it!