What are the advantages and disadvantages of breastfeeding?
Why not, rather than breastfeed, choose to use an infant formula supplement instead?
There are numerous benefits to breastfeeding. On the other hand, there are also numerous challenges.
For many women, they find that it’s difficult to breastfeed during the initial few weeks of the child’s life.
It can also prove to be difficult to breastfeed throughout times of transition. That can include when, or if, you decide to return to work after a lengthy maternity leave.
For most women, if they get some help, they can breastfeed successfully.
Nevertheless, and even so, there are a few drawbacks.
In this article we consider the advantages and the disadvantages of breastfeeding.
Advantages of Breastfeeding
In the U.S. and beyond, all of the main health organizations recommend breastfeeding.
Why?
Simply because, when you breastfeed, there are numerous benefits to baby and to mother.
Some of the most significant advantages, or “pros” if you will, to breastfeeding are:
a) Breastfeeding offers health benefits for the baby
b) Breast milk is the ideal type of food for a baby. Breast milk is rich in fatty acids and in antibodies. These support the overall development of an infant.
c) Breastfeeding provides a baby with every nutrient that they require for healthy growth. Plus, breastfeeding is a reliable way to achieve this.
During the earlier days of breastfeeding, newborn babies get a lot of colostrum from breast feeding.
Don’t worry, even though the word “colostrum” sounds ominous, it’s far from it.
Colostrum is a thick liquid and it is very rich in antibodies.
What colostrum does is that it supports the immune system of the baby.
During the breastfeeding process, the baby’s saliva “interacts” together with the mother’s nipples.
Breast milk slowly adapts to the child’s needs.
This adaptive process caters to numerous health benefits, inclusive of lowering the risk of:
- catching infections and colds, particularly with regards to respiratory infections.
- necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC). NEC can be fatal. It’s a stomach disease and it usually affects babies that are born prematurely.
- breast milk also lowers the risk of ear infections.
- sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).
- eczema.
- various stomach-related problems. For example, vomiting and diarrhea.
- and, breastmilk also lowers the risk of the baby developing into a picky eater.
What about the health benefits for the breastfeeding woman?
Health benefits for women that breastfeed
At least for a time, the majority of women that breastfeed experience something called lactational amenorrhea.
Basically, what this means is that their periods stop.
Of course, this can come as a very welcome break.
For those that wish to avoid becoming pregnant again so soon, it can be of benefit.
And, for women that suffer from endometriosis or from painful periods, for them too, because their periods stop, it provides some relief.
There has been some research that has suggested that those that do not breastfeed could have a higher likelihood than otherwise of experiencing postpartum depression.
Nevertheless, there’s no real conclusive evidence of this. At least not yet.
Additional research has suggested that due to hormonal shifts in the body when breastfeeding, it could provide a variety of mental health benefits.
Again, however, more research is required in order to confirm this one way or another.
Long-term benefits of breastfeeding for the baby
While the early benefits of breastfeeding are plentiful, there are further benefits to be had over the longer term.
These long-term benefits for the baby include reducing the risk of:
- high cholesterol
- obesity
- type 1 and type 2 diabetes
- heart disease
- certain cancers, inclusive of childhood leukemia
It’s thought that breastfeeding helps a child to do better at intelligence tests and is beneficial in terms of cognitive development.
As for the woman, there are, likewise, a number of long-term benefits of breastfeeding.
This includes a reduced risk of:
- various cancers, including breast cancer
- type 2 diabetes
- obesity
Cost savings when breastfeeding
Unlike formula, breastfeeding is entirely free.
There’s zero financial investment when breastfeeding.
There’s no equipment required, no supplies to be bought.
On top of that, because breastfeeding is so healthy for the child, women who breastfeed will possibly have the benefit of not missing out on work (job) quite so often as otherwise in order to take care of an infant that is not well.
If you do have to miss out on many days of work due to a poorly infant, it’s probable that you’ll have to endure many days of unpaid sick leave.
The ease and convenience of breastfeeding
You can, if you wish, breastfeed your baby anywhere.
No warming up of bottles, pack formula, and no making any alternative preparations.
In every state in the U.S., breastfeeding in public is perfectly legal.
Once the art of breastfeeding has been thoroughly mastered, women can then multitask.
You may have some work to get on with. You might wish to chat on the phone. Or, perhaps you just want to chill out and watch a movie.
Bonding and easy soothing
Besides the nourishment side of breastfeeding, it can also be comforting.
In a review carried out in 2016, it was found that babies may be able to better handle the pain that comes after being vaccinated.
For some women, they have found that breastfeeding helps to strengthen the bond with their baby.
Further, soothing a baby with breastfeeding can help women to feel a higher level of confidence with regards to parenting.
Disadvantages of Breastfeeding
It can take a while to master the art of breastfeeding.
Plus, there are a number of barriers that “help” to make it more difficult, perhaps dangerous, or even an impossible task to breastfeed.
Among the main challenges and the main disadvantages of breastfeeding are:
1) The time to adjust to breastfeeding and the pain and discomfort
Frequently, it’s the early weeks of breastfeeding which are by far the most difficult.
There are some that have difficulty with milk supply.
The supply of milk may be too low, or could be too high.
Other women suffer from cracked, painful nipples.
Then there’s the problem of mastitis.
Mastitis is inflammation of the mammary gland in the breast.
Mastitis can cause infection, though not always.
Mastitis causes swelling, redness and pain.
Then, on top of this, women that are learning how to breastfeed are, likewise, making adjustments to a new lifestyle – a lifestyle that now includes a newborn.
Constant demands made by the baby and inadequate sleep can make these adjustments very challenging.
Further, many women take a long time to recover from giving birth.
Due to exhaustion and possibly also to difficulties related to childbirth recovery, breastfeeding can be more difficult.
2) The benefits of breastfeeding could be somewhat exaggerated
We’ve highlighted many of the possible benefits of breastfeeding, but, truth be told, some of those may be exaggerated.
While many studies have been done, not all studies control for particular traits of breastfeeding women.
As an example, there’s research to suggest that breastfeeding is a more common practice among those that are better educated.
In such a scenario, the boost to a breastfed baby’s level of intelligence may, in fact, come from the mother rather than from breastfeeding – from the breast milk.
3) Loss of bodily autonomy
Complications can arise from breastfeeding in that the woman suffers less bodily autonomy.
When breastfeeding, particularly on an exclusive basis, the woman becomes “tied” to her child.
In turn, for some, they gain a sense that they no longer have ownership of their bodies.
This can progress to lack of self-esteem, to not enjoying sex, and to having a poor body image.
4) Not enough social support
Medical organizations, in general, provide a lot of support for breastfeeding.
Nevertheless, it’s the community that often falls short.
And because of this lack of community support, for many women, they feel isolated and breastfeeding becomes a laborious task.
Among the many issues that women who breastfeed experience include:
- A pressure to quit breastfeeding long before they want to quit.
- Negative judgment from family, from friends, and even from complete strangers – people that are in opposition to breastfeeding.
- Inadequate amount of sleep.
- Lack of spousal/ partner support.
- A sense of confusion about the activities that are safe to do whenever breastfeeding.
- Not enough advice about breastfeeding from medical professionals.
- Judgment and shame for public breastfeeding.
5) Parenting work that is unevenly distributed
Frequently, though certainly not always, the task involved with feeding a baby can become exclusive to the breastfeeding mother.
Even more so should the baby not want a bottle or other carers do not bottle feed.
If a spouse/ partner and/ or other carers not provide help with various alternative tasks – for example, changing diapers, household chores, getting up through the night for the baby, preparing the bottle – breastfeeding can soon turn from being a joy to an exhausting nightmare.
If there’s a sense that the parenting work is being unevenly distributed it can cause resentment within a relationship.
The breastfeeder can start to feel that she has very little “me” time.
How Long Should You Breastfeed?
To finalize this article, let’s talk about how long you should breastfeed your baby.
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) says that there’s no limitation as to how long an infant should be breastfed.
Further, there’s zero evidence to suggest that extending breastfeeding is in any way harmful.
For sure, for many cultures, it is considered abnormal to persist with breastfeeding over an extended period of time.
But then, who has to know about it? You should do what you feel is best for your baby and for yourself, not what others say is best.
With respect to the AAP, they provide recommendations that breastfeeding, on an exclusive basis, is ideal for the initial six months of the baby’s life.
What does “exclusive breastfeeding” mean?
There’s no additional nutrition. There’s no juice, no water, no solid foods.
Once these initial six months have elapsed, the AAP suggest that the woman should continue to breastfeed but also introduce solid foods.
Image by Chris Vaughan Griffiths from Pixabay