Ron Mitchell
English 201.501
August 13, 2009
Essay #2, First Draft
1235 words
A Baby’s Birthright
Expecting a new baby is an exciting time full of questions. Will he have his daddy’s nose? Will she have her mommy’s ears? After the baby is born, the questions change. When will she sleep through the night? When am I going to sleep through the night again? Is he ever going to stop crying? With all the questions running through the minds of new parents, few should be as easy to decide as the decision breastfeed. The reasons for nursing a new baby are simple: its best for the baby, its best for the mom, and it’s the most economical route to go. Human milk is for human babies. It’s meant for a baby to drink. Every mother’s milk is the perfect blend of watery foremilk and rich fatty hind milk with a good dose of whatever antibodies she has formed being exposed to various pathogens. The proteins in human milk do not cause allergies, gives a baby the proper amount of sugars and carbohydrates, and contains the correct amount of easily dissolved vitamins and minerals (Perkins 10).
Babies are born with very weak immune systems. They have to be exposed to germs in their day-to-day lives to develop immunity to the common bugs in their lives. “It(…) contains antibodies that help protect infants from common childhood illnesses - such as diarrhea and pneumonia, the two primary causes of child mortality worldwide.” (10 Facts) Formula-fed babies are at a disadvantage to breast fed babies because they do not get these antibodies (Perkins 18). Formula-fed babies are 50% more likely to have ear infections, 64% more likely to have gastrointestinal infections, 72% more likely to be hospitalized due to pneumonia, 40% more likely to have asthma, 39% more likely to develop insulin dependant diabetes, 19% more likely to have childhood leukemia, and 36% more likely to die of SIDS (The Risks). These risks all go up and others come into play with premature infants. Every single month a baby is fed artificial baby milk, his risk of obesity goes up by 4% (The Risks). The World Health Organization has a published a fact file (10 Facts) with 10 facts on breastfeeding. Interesting is number four.
Beyond the immediate benefits for children, breastfeeding contributes to a lifetime of good health. Adults who were breastfed as babies often have lower blood pressure and lower cholesterol, as well as lower rates of overweight, obesity and type-2 diabetes. There is evidence that people who were breastfed perform better in intelligence tests. (10 Facts)
Adults who breastfed as infants are performed better on intelligence
tests. Why would anyone not want to give their child this advantage? Please do not think this was just one isolated study: McGill University(McGill) and the New York Times(Bakalar) reported the same thing in May of 2008. A study was done in New Zealand in the 1970s that found that adults who were breastfed as babies made better grades in school than their formula-fed classmates. Even the American Academy of Pediatrics (Concato) reviewed dozens of studies and concluded that there is a link between breastfeeding and intelligence.
It certainly seems that a baby is better off being breastfed than formula fed. A breastfed baby is more likely to be both intelligent and healthy when compared to a formula fed baby. Breast is best for the baby.
Breastfeeding is also best for the mother. Declining the opportunity to nurse her baby, a mother is more likely to suffer from post partum depression, her chances of developing type 2 diabetes increases, as well as her chances for various types of cancer (Benefits). A mother interviewed while expecting my own child said it was also easier for her “to just pop the baby on the boob and sleep while he ate.” Since sleep helps everyone recover from everything from hangovers to surgery, one would assume more sleep during the first few weeks of being a new parent would help a mother recover from delivery faster too.
Breastfeeding also causes a woman’s body to produce a hormone known as Oxytocin. Oxytocin is also known as “the love hormone” as reflected in the July 28, 2009 Hathor The Cow Goddess comic (Oxytocin). Production of Oxytocin not only helps a mother to bond with her baby, but also helps her uterus shrink back to its pre-pregnancy size. While the uterus does contract on its own, breastfeeding helps it go back quicker normally resulting in decreased lochia or post partum bleeding, quicker loss of “baby weight” (Perkins 23) and the quicker the after pains end.
Breastfeeding an infant requires about 500 calories a day on top of a woman’s normal caloric needs. For a one hundred sixty pound mom, burning off that many calories would take 40 minutes of high impact step aerobics to burn off (Calorie). For someone who is not a big fan of exercise, breastfeeding certainly sounds like the lazy way out!
The third reason to nurse your baby instead of formula feeding is economics. The breastfeeding resource kellymom.com has a really handy table showing the various things a mom could purchase instead of formula. Using 2005 prices, they determined that a mom who breastfed rather than buying high end formula, she can save about $50 in the first 6 weeks. Better yet, if she breastfeeds for 6 months, that translates to about $1,600 and 12 months to approximately $3,000(Financial).
These numbers are astounding. Who would want to throw $3,000 away when they have something better for their child that is free? Also, these numbers do not take the other “costs” for formula feeding into consideration. This is simply a comparison of the cost of the artificial baby milk verses the cost of breast milk.
Formula-fed babies are sick more often than breastfed babies. Therefore mothers who work outside the home miss more days of work caring for their sick infants. Not even considering their lost wages, a study by the AAP determined that medical costs alone cost between $331 and $475 more for a formula-fed baby in any given year (Ball).
Most people do consider the cost of the artificial baby milk itself but what about bottles, pacifiers, gas drops, drop-in inserts, sterile water and the time it takes to prepare it. Breastmilk is ready to go whenever, wherever a mother and child may happen to be. There is no need to worry about the temperature, water safety, or to ever consider boiling a nipple for sterility, OUCH! The mother simply need help her baby latch on and she can read, practice typing one handed, watch TV, attend a phone conference for work or any number of things all while bonding with her child and giving him the best nutrition nature can provide. My own mother bragged she could nurse her child, make a sandwich, watch a football game, talk on the phone, all while winning gin rummy(Hayden).
Formula feeding has hidden costs in missed wages, sleep loss, work experience and medical costs. Declining the opportunity to breastfeed her child increases a mother’s chances of having a number of problems both with her recovery from birth and with her own health later in life. By allowing a child access to what is his by right of his birth, a mother helps her child by giving him the best chance possible to grow up into a happy and healthy adult. What more could a mother ask for?
Works Cited
10 Facts on Breastfeeding. July 2009. World Health Organization August 13,
2009
Bakalar, Nicholas. "Nutrition: Breast-feeding Tied to Intelligence” New York
Times 13 May 2008:
Ball, Thomas and Wright, Anne. Health care Costs of Formula-Feeding in the
First Year of Life. PEDIATRICS Vol. 103 No. 4 April 1999, pp. 870-876
http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/content/full/103/4/S1/870
Benefits of Breastfeeding. 27 February 2009. Federal Government Source for
Women’s Health Information. August 13, 2009.
Calorie Burn Calculator. 2007. Internetfitness.com Inc. August 13, 2009.
Concato, John and Jain, Anjali and Leventhal, John M. How Good Is the
Evidence Linking Breastfeeding and Intelligence?. PEDIATRICS Vol. 109 No. 6 June 2002, pp. 1044-1053
Financial Costs of Not Breastfeeding. 2005. Bonyata, Kelly. August 13, 2009.
Hayden, Betty. Personal Interview. 15 August 2005.
Higher IQ Connected to Breastfeeding. 05 Jan 1998. Breastfeeding.com.
August 13, 2009.
McGill University. "Breastfeeding Associated With Increased Intelligence,
Study Suggests." ScienceDaily 6 May 2008. 13 August 2009
Oxytocin. 28 July 2009. Cushman-Dowdee, Heather. August 13, 2009.
Perkins, Sharon and Vannais, Carol. Breastfeeding for Dummies. Hoboken
NJ: Wiley Publishing, 2004.
Rabin, Roni Caryn. “Breast-Feeding Linked to Lower Cancer Risk”. New York
Times 10 August 2009:
The Risks of Infant Formula Feeding. 2009. The Breastfeeding Task Force of
Greater Los Angeles. August 13, 2009
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