Best Practices For Breastfeeding

Before you got pregnant, you probably never heard that more hair will grow on your legs and your nipple’s color will change while the baby is growing and developing in your womb, but you surely went through all these strange details while you were on your journey and were moving from one trimester to another.

And now, you’re certainly wondering about the secrets behind breastfeeding, because eventually you can learn the basics of this experience and its steps through books and consultancy sessions, yet you won’t be able to assimilate what you’ll have to go through until you start feeding your newborn baby for real.

So keep on reading this article and get introduced to important facts about breastfeeding that no one has ever told you:

• Breast milk is exclusively the best food and drink for an infant from 0 to 6 months old. Usually, a baby doesn’t need any other food or drink but milk during this period.
• A newborn baby should be given to his mother right after birth, so he can make skin-to-skin contact with her till the first time feed comes, i.e. one hour afterwards.
• Regular breastfeeding can stimulate a mother’s breasts to produce more milk. A newborn baby shall breastfeed at will, a minimum of 8 times a day.
• Breastfeeding increases the levels of Oxytocin and Prolactin in the body, and that’s what may boost a mother’s audacity and strength, and enable her to handle stress.
• During breastfeeding, milk often leaks from a mother’s breasts without a prior notice and every time she hears a baby (any baby) crying. That’s why she must put cotton pads in her bra to prevent the leaking from getting to her clothes.
• Breastfeeding promotes the production of Oxytocin which helps a mother relax and get herself a good time of rest and sleep.
• At the beginning of breastfeeding, a baby may find a difficulty latching on properly to his mother’s breasts, causing her pains and discomforts.
• Cleaning a mother’s breasts that are full of milk with soapy water can dry them and cause them to be sore. So it would be very wise not to get into this habit and wash only with lukewarm water.
• A breastfeeding mother needs 500 extra calories a day to help her body produce milk, and it would be better if these calories come from healthy sources that are high in nutrients and vitamins.
• Menstruation can be delayed at any point during breastfeeding. So it would be better to use any effective contraception method and prevent a possible second pregnancy happening too soon!

Now that you got to know more about breastfeeding, challenges and benefits, we advise you not to let go of this special experience but do your best to make it work for your sake and the sake of your little one!

Read More: Tips For A Successful Breastfeeding