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Benefits of Breastfeeding
In choosing to breastfeed, you make the best possible choice for your baby, for yourself and for our society. Breast milk is the absolute perfect food for your baby, and helps lay a strong foundation for their future development. Breastfeeding assists with your postpartum recovery and overall health. It saves money, is more convenient than bottle feeding and fosters a closeness that will enrich your relationship with your baby, now and in the future.
The benefits of breastfeeding are numerous and astounding. Our hope is, that by presenting this information, we can help to encourage and support your personal decision to nurse.
- Benefits to Baby - Compiled by Motherwear
- Breastmilk contains every nutrient in best proportions for perfect growth of brain and nervous system
- Taurine, an amino acid abundant in HUMAN milk aids in infant brain development & maturation
- Breastmilk is easily digested - no worries about milk allergies
- Nursing provides for optimum jaw, mouth & speech development
- Breastmilk provides immunity against viral diseases, respiratory infections & bacterial diseases
- Breastfed babies have fewer colds, ear infections, respiratory problems & digestive complaints
- Breastfed babies are less likely to succumb to SIDS
- Breastfed babies are protected against food allergies, dermatitis & chronic liver disease
- Breastfed babies have improved visual development
- Breastfed babies are at reduced risk of developing childhood leukemia
- Children who receive ANY formula in the first six months are at greater risk of developing asthma
- Babies who receive ANY formula in the first 3 weeks of life have twice the rate of minor neurological dysfunction
- Among kids aged 8 to 18, those who were breastfed have significantly higher IQ, reading comprehension and math ability
- Adults who were breastfed have lower cholesterol levels, diabetes, ulcerative colitis & Crohn’s disease
- Adults who were breastfed are less likely to develop breast cancer
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- Benefits to Mother - Compiled by Motherwear
- Breastmilk is always ready - no measuring, mixing, or sterilizing bottles
- Breastmilk is always the right temperature
- Breastfeeding saves time
- Breastfeeding saves money - no formula or bottles to buy
- Fewer doctor visits, fewer prescription and hospitalization expenses.
- Fewer stained clothes
- Breastfeeding creates a powerful emotional bond with your baby
- Breastfeeding moms know they're doing the very best for their babies
- Breastfeeding speeds recovery from pregnancy and delivery
- Oxytocin, a hormone produced in response to sucking, stimulates a sense of well-being
- Breastfeeding delays return of menstruation
- Breastfeeding reduces maternal risk of developing breast cancer
- Breastfeeding protects mothers from ovarian cancer, urinary tract infections and may even help prevent osteoporosis
- Breastfeeding speeds mother's metabolism and burns an extra 500 calories a day
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- Benefits to Society - Compiled by Motherwear
- Reduces health care costs
- Reduces maternal absenteeism among working mothers
- Breastfeeding creates a healthier workforce for the future
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- Benefits to the Environment - Ross Laboratories / David Mager
Motherwear's efforts to influence more moms to breastfeed their babies longer have a beneficial impact on our environment too. Because our clothing and support make breastfeeding easier, Motherwear customers nurse their babies much longer on average than the national norm (18 months vs. 2.3 months*). When we commissioned our first environmental audit in 1995, the auditor was amazed to find that the increased duration of breastfeeding by Motherwear customers conserved many more resources than were consumed by Motherwear's entire business. *Ross Laboratories survey 1992 By nursing their babies longer, Motherwear customers saved the following valuable resources in 1998-above and beyond the resources used by Motherwear to market, manufacture and distribute our products and catalog: **
- 3,506,870 lbs. of steel from formula cans
- 364,463 lbs. of paper
- 359,608 lbs. of HDPE from plastic milk containers
- 3,790,007 gallons of milk, requiring 65,271,668 lbs. of dairy feed to produce
- 861,192 gallons of oil (equivalent) for cow milk, formula production, transportation and refrigeration-which produces 19,373,385 lbs. of carbon dioxide. 4,892 acres of forest are required to absorb this amount of carbon dioxide.
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