Breast-feeding a source of long term benefits for babies

Breast-feeding a source of long term benefits for babies

By Rani Rachmani Moediarta

Breast feeding is the perfect source of food for babies as it
is full of nutrition and immunities. Besides, it is the cheapest
milk in the world. This article explores more benefits of breast
feeding to mark The International Breast Feeding Week which starts
today and runs until Aug. 7.

JAKARTA (JP): Every study unfailingly affirms a new benefit of
breast feeding, encouraging mothers to exclusively breast feed
their newborn babies in the first six months of their lives.

Exclusive breast feeding then should be continued along with
adequate complementary food up for up to two years and beyond.

"Sadly, the only major obstacle of breast feeding in Indonesia
is knowledge," said pediatrician Utami Roesli of the St. Carolus
Hospital's lactation clinic in Central Jakarta.

She pointed out that according to recent data, 90 to 98
percent of new mothers breast feed their babies. However, they
only breastfed their babies in the beginning and did not continue
it. The 1995 research covering the Greater Jakarta area
discovered that out of 900 mothers, only 5 percent of them
exclusively breastfed their babies.

"I'm afraid the number is decreasing," Utami said. "In the
present situation, with the crisis, people do not have time to
think about the advantages of breast feeding anymore. Many
mothers might be forced to work (outside their homes), earning
money instead of learning how to successfully breast feed (their
babies)."

For the mothers, breast feeding does not only involve the act
of feeding a hungry baby. In practice, both baby and mother
"feed" each other instinctively. When the baby is being
breastfed, it will naturally make eye contact with the mother.

This eye-contact, according to many researchers, is not just a
coincidence. With the strong suckle, the eye contact sends many
meaningful, intelligent signals to the mother's system --
relaxing the mother's nervous system and particular spots thus
producing more milk at the right time, temperature and volume for
the baby.

This process might explain why many mothers prefer to breast
feed their babies while lying restfully on one side. For mothers,
it will help them to rest, refresh and relax, another way to cope
with tiring domestic chores.

In the economic sense, breast feeding is practical. It's
available instantly -- at no cost. Given the present economic
situation, breast feeding might help save money by not having to
buy formula.

Moreover, breast feeding needs no preparation: no need to
sterilize bottles, measure and mix the formula, not to mention
keeping it warm at night. Besides, there is no need to rush
anytime the baby cries.

Apart from these benefits, some studies have also confirmed
that in the long term, breast feeding helps reduce a woman's risk
of developing, among other things, breast and ovarian cancer,
iron deficiency, anemia and suffering hip fractures.

Benefits for babies

Beside its primary nutritional benefits, according to the U.S.
Food and Drug Administration (FDA), breast milk contains just the
right amount of fatty acids, lactose, water and amino acids for
human digestion, brain development and growth.

Cow's milk contains a different type of protein than breast
milk, which is good for calves but for human infants can cause
digestion problem. Bottle-fed infants also tend to be fatter, but
not necessarily healthier.

A recent study by Dr. Matthew W. Gillman of Harvard Medical
School involving a group of children of 14 years of age,
discovered less cases of obesity among the children who were
breastfed for six months than those who got it for only three
months.

Breastfed babies have fewer illnesses because the milk
transfers the mothers' antibodies against diseases, according to
FDA surveys. About 80 percent of the cells in breast milk are
macrophage -- cells that kill bacteria, fungi, and viruses.

Breastfed babies are protected, in varying degrees, from a
number of illnesses, including pneumonia, botulism, bronchitis,
staphylococcus infections, influenza, ear infections, and German
measles. Furthermore, mothers produce antibodies to whatever
disease is present in their environment, making their milk
custom-designed to fight the diseases their babies are exposed to
as well.

Breast milk is always sterile, never contaminated by polluted
water or dirty bottles, which can cause diarrhea in infants.

Newly confirmed benefit of breast-feeding for babies includes
higher IQs.

In New Zealand, Dr. L.J. Horwood of the Christchurch School of
Medicine recently studied 143 children who were born underweight
(less than 1,500 grams). Those who were breast-fed for eight
months got 6 points higher in IQ tests than those who were
breast-fed for shorter periods of time.

The long term benefit of breast-feeding to babies may also be
psychological since it creates an early attachment between mother
and child which is crucial for the child's later stages of
development.

Many psychologists believe the nursing baby enjoys a sense of
security from the mother's warmth and presence, especially from
skin-to-skin contact during feeding, something they do not get
while being fed with bottles.

Information

Successful breast feeding, Utami believes, is only a matter of
knowledge.

First, she said, new mothers have to learn to breast feed
since it is not a ready-to-use practice. Second, they have to be
informed enough to fight widely-believed myths, especially among
Indonesian women who think that breast feeding can lead to
sagging breasts.

When mothers were asked why they stopped breast feeding by the
Indonesian Consumers Foundation in its 1995 survey, most of them
answered that they did it because they were afraid their husbands
would leave them because of their sagging breasts.

"They do not know that it is pregnancy, not only breast
feeding, which can cause sagging breasts in women. So if women do
not want to have sagging breasts, don't get pregnant," Utami
insisted.

She revealed that the second obstacle to breast feeding among
working mothers was time. But as Utami and her colleagues at St.
Carolus Hospital have proved, this problem is also a matter of
knowledge.

"Working mothers can breast feed too if only they know how to
do it. In St. Carolus Hospital, 80 percent of working mothers
successfully breast feed their infants exclusively because they
are provided with the right assistance without having to extend
their maternity leave.

"What is needed is only a minor adjustment of the company's
working hours policy as they need to pump their breast milk twice
for 15 minutes each time. Only that," Utami said.

She also found out that some mothers were not encouraged to
breast feed because they didn't know who to ask when they had
problems breast feeding.

"We have very few sources (such as breast feeding consultants)
who can provide information. Breast feeding consultancy work is
not a popular profession because we cannot earn money from it,"
said Utami, who just sat a certified consultant's examination
from the International Lactation Board last week.

Information about breast feeding's benefits is also provided
by many agencies, such as Maternal Neonatal Health (MNH) in their
campaigns, including the one to mark the International Breast
Feeding Week this year. St. Carolus's lactation clinic also
provides a 24-hour hotline service at (021) 390 4441 for breast
feeding mothers.