Facts About Breastfeeding That You Did Not Know
Breastfeeding means feeding someone who is not yet able to take care of themselves. In this article, you will learn facts about breastfeeding that you did not know before.
It should give the baby the necessary defense against pathogens and strengthen an emotional relationship that began in the womb.
At “Ich bin Mutter” we would like to talk to you about breastfeeding and highlight facts about breastfeeding that you probably don’t know about it yet.
Breastfeeding Facts: Breast Milk … More than Food
Breast milk is the best food a child can have.
However, there are other recommended dietary supplements if a child does not tolerate their mother’s milk or does not produce enough to feed them … yet there is still no full substitute for their mother’s milk.
The first yellowish liquid to come out of the breast – colostrum -, along with the milk, immunizes the baby against the pathogens to which it is exposed when it leaves the stomach.
In addition to the necessary food and defense, caressing and gently holding the child while breastfeeding contributes to its psychological well-being.
As a good mother, you should know that breast milk also carries emotions, both negative and positive.
If you breastfeed your child in a quiet place where you and your child are comfortable, both will be happy.
However, if you are impatient, nervous, or embarrassed by a few glances, it will spread to the baby while breastfeeding.
Then it will cry and be restless even during its time of sleep and rest.
One of the facts about breastfeeding that you did not know before
Up to this point we must have agreed that breastfeeding means devotion, responsibility, but above all love.
And love is exactly where we wanted to be.
Did you know that the hormone that makes you love your child so much is also responsible for milk dripping from your breasts?
Oxytocin: the molecule of love and breastfeeding
As we just told you, the molecule of love popularly called oxytocin is one of the things that are responsible for the bond you have with your child even before you hold them in your arms.
This hormone also plays a fundamental role in the flow of milk from your nipples every time your child needs food.
Next we explain how this is done.
Oxytocin for mother’s love
When a woman is about to give birth, the production of oxytocin in the brain increases.
This hormone makes the love you feel for your baby grow stronger as the days go on.
During labor, the mother’s brain continues to produce a large amount of oxytocin, so the maternal instinct increases immediately after birth.
The high values of oxytocin guarantee a love at first sight that suppresses pain and tiredness and gives priority to protection, affection and love for the newborn.
Oxytocin in milk flow
When the baby sucks on the nipple, the mother receives a nervous stimulus that reaches her brain, where oxytocin is released.
The hormone travels through the blood vessels to the chest, where the muscle cells it stimulates cause the breast tissue to contract and the glands begin to release milk.
Due to the large number of times the child stimulates the nipple, this mechanism becomes a reflex; that is, some mothers just hear their baby crying and milk begins to flow.
While this is not very common, there are even women who start producing milk when they see children on TV or hear children crying in the street.
Breastfeeding is a unique time in your life.
As the years go by and you see another mother breastfeeding her baby, you will remember with nostalgia the pleasant moments you and your baby spent together.
So enjoy this unique moment that nature gives you and live every minute as if it were the last.
The latter is something you probably knew, but what we like to remind you of in “I am mother”.
