Breast-Milk- The Liquid Gold

When you become a mom you had a beautiful bonding with your baby from the womb , as the little one takes her first breath outside your womb the first thing your baby wants is the liquid gold from her mom.

Yes those few drops of breast milk from her mom is precious, it’s the liquid gold!

Breastfeeding is so important for every mom and baby and creating awareness for importance of breastfeeding is much-needed today.

World Breastfeeding Week is celebrated every year from 1 to 7 August all over the globe to encourage breastfeeding and improve the health of babies around the world.

Apollo Cradle taking initiative by creating awareness and educating people about the importance of breastfeeding.

It was a great experience where Dr. Aparna Jha cleared our doubts and helps us understand more about the benefits of breastfeeding and Dr. Srividya and Dr. Mohanieshwari help us with proper knowledge of  nutrition during Lactation and best position for feeding baby while C-section. 

Speakers:
Dr. Aparna Jha, Sr. Consultant Gynecologist and Obstetrician.
Dr. Srividya, Nutritionist and lactation expert.
Dr. Mohanieshwari, physiotherapist , Child birth

Some really good points doctors take in the discussion and would love to get them pinned here for all.

Stages and types of Breast milk

colostrum yellow colour milk which secretes in the first three days after delivery.

• It is rich in IGA antibodies which has anti-infective actions.
• Lactoferrin,which is immunomodulator, also has tropic action on intestinal growth.
• Casein having anti-adhesive property.
• Oligosaccharides- prevents bacterial attachment.
• Cytokines- Anti-inflammatory.

Foremilk and Hindmilk- milk which starts secreting after three days of delivery.

• Rich in carbohydrates, fats, proteins, growth factors, enzymes and nucleotide.

Benefits of breast milk to the infant:

• Best possible nutrition to infant.
• Reduces the chances of chronic disorders like insulin dependent diabetes mellitus, childhood cancer , obesity and overweight, celiac disease, Crohn’s disease.
• Reduces the chance of acute infection like diarrhea, otitis media, urinary tract infection, necrotizing enterocolitis, septicemia, infant botulism.
• Exclusive breastfeeding for more than six months is an independent predictor of better medical health through childhood and adolescence.
• It also improves the cognitive development of the baby, studies have shown Breast fed babies have better IQ then non-breast fed babies.

Benefits of Breast milk to the Mother during Lactation:

• Skin to skin contact of the mother and the baby increases the bonding.
• Breastfeeding releases oxytocin hormones, which helps in reducing the size of uterus faster and thus reduce bleeding post-delivery.
• Breastfeeding also releases prolactin hormones which keeps the mother relaxed and helps her to sleep better.
• Breastfeeding enhances the weight loss post delivery.

 Long term health benefits for mother:

• Reduces the risk of breast cancer, ovarian cancer and endometrial cancer
• Also reduces the risk of coronary heart disease.
• Reduces the severity of diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis.

Contra-Indication of breastfeeding : 

• There is no absolute contra-indication of breastfeeding.
• Relative contra-indication are –  HIV positive status of the mother, full-blown active tuberculosis and herpes infection of the nipples site.

Now as we all know now days there are lot of people who are ready to give free advice to a new mom, and their comes lots of myths too. Let’s know what doctor have to say about the myths.

Myths about breastfeeding:

• colostrum should be discarded well it the power House of immunity and should definitely be provided to baby.
• Even after breastfeeding baby cries because it is not getting enough milk -baby cries does not always mean hungry baby, it generally cries for warmth of mother
• Baby needs water apart from breast milk – mother foremilk contains enough water and so baby does not need any kind of external fluid for its healthy survival.
• Mother cannot breastfeed when she is sick – mother may breast-feed even when she is sick.
• Mother has to stop breastfeeding if she conceives mother can continue breastfeed just taking care of her nutrition.

This discussion is endless with lot more points to be cleared and I was feeling really good to got this chance to learn more about breastfeeding and spreading a word through my blog.

Would love to share details about breastfeeding position and nutrition diet that should  be given to every mother after delivery.

Stay tuned for my next blog?