What breastfeeding does for you
It’s really a whole lot more than just good for baby – you get some great benefits too.
We all know that breastfeeding is good for our babies – there’s a slew of studies to prove that, which is why the World Health Organization recommends exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months and breastfeeding up to two years or beyond. But what’s less well known is that breastfeeding has plenty of physical and psychological health benefits for you too. And we’re not just talking about (maybe) shedding that baby weight quicker. ”Breastfeeding is an important part of the way women’s bodies recover from pregnancy,” explains Dr Eleanor Bimla Schwarz from the University of Pittsburgh, co-author of an extensive study into the long-term benefits of breastfeeding. ”The longer a mother nurses her baby, the better for both of them,” she says.
Local expert Sister Hettie Grove, a midwife and lactation trainer via SA Certified Lactation Consultants, adds that the health benefits of breastfeeding for mothers are only just beginning to be discovered and understood. In fact, she says, not breastfeeding ”might have profound effects on the mother’s health, and researchers worldwide have started to look at this phenomenon”.
REDUCES BLEEDING AFTER BIRTH
Breastfeeding in the first few hours and days of your baby’s birth will help reduce postpartum bleeding and prevent haemorrhaging, plus it assists your uterus to get back to ”normal”. Esme Nel Hough, professional liaison for La Leche League South Africa, a non-profit organisation that provides information and support to breastfeeding mothers, says this is because your baby’s repeated suckling triggers the release of oxytocin from your pituitary gland. ”This hormone not only signals the breasts to release milk to the baby but simultaneously produces contractions in the uterus. These contractions help prevent postpartum haemorrhage and promote uterine involution – the return to a non-pregnant state,” she explains.
NO PERIODS = MORE MUCH-NEEDED IRON
The longer you exclusively breastfeed, the longer it is before your menstrual period returns. That’s a generalisation, and everyone differs, but most women will get their period back within six to eight weeks if they don’t breastfeed, while women who do breastfeed will not get their period for several months. Esme says staying in an amenorrheic (absence of menstruation) state helps to conserve the amount of iron in your body, which is important in the first months after pregnancy. ”It also provides natural spacing of pregnancies,” she adds.
BETTER BONDING WITH BABY
”Mothers who breastfeed as soon as possible after birth tend to bond better, as the hormones are primed during labour for this bonding,” Sister Grove says. The hormone most responsible for this is oxytocin, known as ”the love hormone” because of the feeling of love, calm and wellbeing it produces. ”Every time you breastfeed, your oxytocin levels increase. So, in a sense, every time you breastfeed, you fall more in love with your baby,” explains Louise Goosen, midwife, lactation consultant and chair of the Breastfeeding Association of South Africa as well as Milk Matters, a nonprofit organisation that supplies breast milk to babies unable to receive it from their mothers.
DID YOU KNOW? Breastfeeding reduces a woman’s risk of diabetes by 20%