1. Breast milk is packed with disease-fighting nutrients that can help protect your baby from an assortment of illnesses like ear infections, stomach viruses, meningitis, and more due to the immunoglobulin A that is present in your milk and protects your baby from germs.
2. Breastfeeding is a great way to get yourself back to your pre-baby weight, as it can burn up to 700 calories per day! That’s right! It takes energy to create and secrete all that breast milk.
3. Most babies can pick the scent of their mom’s breast milk as opposed to another mother’s scent, by two weeks! This familiar smell can be soothing to babies.
4. Don’t forget: what you eat or drink, your baby eats and drinks as well: as it’s all expressed in your milk. Not only does this mean you should be sure to stick to a balanced diet but you should watch for signs of allergies or colic in your baby which could mean you may to modify your diet in order to change your milk.
5. Want your baby to fall into a “breast milk coma?” Did you know milk expressed in the evening has a higher fat content than milk expressed earlier in the day and helps your baby sleep. This also illustrates why it is important to time stamp and label your milk if you are freezing or refrigerating it – the time you pumped truly matters!
6. Breastfeeding is good for your health! Breastfeeding has been shown to reduce the risk of breast, ovarian, and endometrial cancer in a mother’s later life and may reduce the risk of osteoporosis.
7. Almost 75% of all moms produce more milk in their right breast, regardless if they are right- or left- handed.
8. Women who breastfeed for more than twelve months during their lifetime tend to have lower risks of high blood pressure, high cholesterol, heart disease, and diabetes.
9. Breastfeeding can calm you down and make you less stressed because when your baby is nursing your body releases oxytocin and endorphins which can relax you and even help you sleep!
10. Breastfeeding can help prevent your baby from becoming an allergy sufferer versus babies who drink cow or soy milk. The reason? Once again it’s attributed to Immunoglobulin A, a powerful form of protection for baby!
Wishing you good health.
Dr. V