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 How Should You Exercise During Pregnancy?
Exercise not only keeps women fitter and happier during pregnancy, but also makes labor easier and lessens the recovery time after delivery.
Learn more about staying fit, healthy, and how to lose weight after having a baby with aerobic exercise during and after pregnancy.
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You are here: Baby Care Center >
Breast feeding
> Breast vs. Bottle Feeding |
Compare Breast Feeding and Bottle Feeding With the Nutrition
Health Benefits of Breast Milk verses Formula for your
Nursing Infant
Breast Feeding Verses Bottle Formula Feeding
Nutrition Benefits
Deciding whether or not to breastfeed your newborn usually
has to do with your lifestyle, because breastfeeding is
definitely more work. You have to deal with the schedule,
pump your breasts when you aren't around your baby, find
adequate storage for the milk and then see that your baby
gets enough to feed on whether you and your breasts are
there or not. Most of the time, women make decisions about
breast feeding because of their work schedule: most jobs
don't allow you the time or flexibility to bring your baby
in for feedings every two to four hours! (But they should!)
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Breast Feeding Health Benefits
Medical evidence is clear: breast milk results in healthier
babies, stronger immune systems and better bonding between moms
and infants. The ingredients in breast milk measurably increase
babies' resistance to illness and infection, cause them to gain
weight faster than bottle fed babies and longer term create
children who suffer fewer childhood diseases. And those are just
the things that medical science can measure! What medical
science has difficulty in measuring is also important: there are
so many things we still don't know about how the thoughts and
feelings of the mother become important components of the actual
milk, and how they work in the baby's body. What science has
measured though, is the fact that breastfeeding as a process
strongly influences the health and happiness of the infant and
the mother. Babies who are breastfed go to sleep faster, and are
more easily soothed than bottle babies. When research compares
the health of babies who are breastfed to babies who are bottle
fed, as long as the mothers of the breastfed babies provide
enough milk and are healthy themselves, the breastfed baby comes
out ahead. And the nursing mother experiences greater bonding
with her baby as well as the benefit of easier post-delivery
weight loss: breastfeeding burns up about an extra 500 calories
a day, or 3,500 a week, which amounts to a one-pound per week
weight loss just by breastfeeding.
Benefits of Formula Bottle Feeding
There are real and legitimate reasons to bottle feed your baby.
If you don't have enough milk, your doctor will probably
recommend that you combine breast and bottle feeding so your
baby gets enough to eat. If you have an illness that either
affects the quality of your breastmilk or makes it difficult to
keep a reasonable weight when nursing, your Ob-gyn may recommend
bottle feeding. But these are rare instances, and most of the
time, women who decide to stop breastfeeding early in their
child's development or right after leaving the hospital do so
because their lives make breastfeeding too inconvenient. Many
women can't afford to quit their jobs to stay home and nurse a
baby, and most jobs still don't make allowances for nursing
mothers to do what they need to do.
Lactation Research to Help You Breast Feed Your Infant
Some mothers give up on breast feeding because they have a
difficult time learning to nurse their babies. This usually
happens because they haven't had the proper training: with more
hospitals shoving the mother out the door right with the sweat
still on her brow, more new mothers don't get the help and
advice they need about breastfeeding. This extremely natural act
doesn't in fact come naturally: you may need training in
teaching your newborn how to latch on, or in different holding
techniques. You may feel it's silly that part of being a mother
may include studies in the best breastfeeding methods, but keep
it in mind; babies aren't born knowing just how to suckle, and
new moms need some teaching too.
Lactation continues for a time whether or not you decide to
bottle feed, so even moms who decide to use formula have to get
rid of the excess milk in their bodies until it dries up on its
own. Part of the regular equipment of motherhood, a breast pump,
bottles for storage and serving bottles are useful to new
mothers whether they are breastfeeding or not.
Continue reading more information about
Storing Breast Milk
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