Keeping A Baby Healthy

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that women breastfeed their infants for at least one year, and for as long as mutually desirable. The World Health Organization doubles the AAP’s minimum recommendation. While almost three-quarters of moms in the US breastfeed their babies at some point, only half of those who start are still breastfeeding their babies at six months. One in five babies are breastfed for at least 1 year – the minimum recommended time. A lonely 6.7 percent of moms are still breastfeeding their children at 18 months. Data beyond this point don’t seem to exist – but with numbers already this low, what’s the point?

Connor is a breastfed baby.
Connor is growing into a breastfed toddler.

To say I had trouble breastfeeding Connor would the understatement of the century. For genetic reasons, I am unable to produce milk in one breast – and the other breast needed substantial encouragement to get with it and produce milk. Most women like me (few that we are), would never have had the opportunity to breastfeed their baby. I got lucky. My baby was born at home and the midwife and birth assistant that attended my birth called an incredibly fabulous lactation consultant who was kind enough to drive out to my home on the Friday Connor was born. Ed and I always joke that Pat was sitting in her office and heard there was a breastfeeding emergency in the suburbs. She hopped in her boob shaped car, turned on the nipple siren, and headed our way. Had anyone with less experience, enthusiasm, or knowledge shown up, Connor and I might not have experienced the benefits of breastfeeding. We had a lot of trouble along the way, including minor yeast infections, plugged ducts and a very nasty case of mastitis over Christmas. It probably wasn’t until 9 months that we really hit our stride. Prior to that, I took Domperidone to increase milk production. This drug is offered over-the-counter in Europe, but is very expensive and only available at compounding pharmacies in the US, of which there are two in the very large metro area I live in. All I can say to that is – thank you, internet. And when people say breastfeeding can be difficult - I understand.

So, who is most likely to breastfeed in this country? Moms over 30, moms with at least a college degree, married moms, moms with incomes over 3.5 times the official poverty ratio, and Hispanic moms. I am all but one of these. Incidentally, when I decided to have my baby at home with the assistance of a midwife, I signed a contract that detailed what the midwife was going to do and what I was going to do. My responsibilities included taking a class on breastfeeding and promising to breastfeed my baby. I was told to consider myself totally incapacitated for two weeks after I gave birth. In the words of my midwife, my job was to “make milk” – and that was my only job. How many OBs (or pediatricians, for that matter) do you know that place this much emphasis on infant nutrition? And how many new dads take over the household completely, sleep-deprived as they are, and keep everything running fabulously, a task aided in our case by Ed’s generous paternity leave benefits?

What else might it take to breastfeed? A good lactation consultant; the Milkmoms (a group of women I met through my lactation consultant who provide mother-to-mother support); a very supportive partner; a sister, mother, mother-in-law or close friend that can answer questions frankly - because questions do come up; a personality that allows you to breastfeed in public - or a public who doesn't stop to stare when a woman feeds her child; and if you're going to work outside the home - an office that affords enough privacy to pump, and ideally work that can be done while pumping.

Why do we breastfeed? For one, human breastmilk has the ability to heal the sick – something its inferior pretender, infant formula, cannot do. Breastfed babies have fewer ear infections, urinary tract infections, respiratory infections, gastrointestinal infections, and bacterial meningitis and they produce more antibodies in response to routine immunizations. The health benefits to babies extend long after weaning. They are less likely to develop illnesses associated with misdirected immune reactions such as asthma, juvenile diabetes, allergies, Crohn’s disease, and several other conditions. Children breastfed as infants are less likely to develop cancer and obesity, and have higher IQs. But the benefits are not one-way. Women who breastfeed see their uteruses return to their pre-pregnancy size sooner and typically have menstruation suppressed, which leads to less blood loss in the sleepless first months of motherhood. They are also at reduced risk of ovarian and breast cancer – though the latest studies show these latter benefits begin to accrue once a woman breastfeeds for at least 13 months.

Breastfeeding is also a pain in the butt. It is the one job that no one else can do. If skipped, particularly during those early weeks when milk supply is being established, the mom can have trouble building her supply up to an adequate amount. When a breastfed baby needs to be fed in the middle of the night, you know who answers the call. And once I headed back to work, I had to pump milk during the day for Connor while I was away, which sucks. I am delighted that Connor will drink cow's milk when I am away these days. I do not miss that pump!

So here we are. I’m hoping for Connor to be inspired to wean himself at some point, because I just can’t look him in the eye and not feed him when he pats my chest because at this point, it really is a simple act. Perhaps some weekend I go away he’ll kick the habit. Either that, or I’ll have the only kid heading off to college who neither naps without me when I'm around nor uses a cup!

Elaine