Breastfeeding Encouragement Quotes

$13 to $20 billion a year could be saved in health care costs by demedicalizing childbirth, developing midwifery, and encouraging breastfeeding.

When mothers are allowed and encouraged to be intuitive and responsive to their babies’ cues, the pair adapt to each other rapidly and the synergy of two lives can be established happily.

To summarize the reasons for skin-to-skin contact: • It helps to get breastfeeding started. • It maintains the newborn’s temperature more effectively than an incubator. • It helps the baby adapt to the new environment, especially in terms of sugar levels, acid-base balance, respiratory rate and heart rate. • It provides comfort to the new baby after what has been said to be a stressful experience. • It facilitates bonding. • It causes oxytocin release in the mother, which helps her feel loving and nurturing toward the baby. • It encourages milk ejection as well as uterine contractions (to reduce bleeding). • It improves immediate and long-term breastfeeding success.

Although formulas have greatly improved over the years, no formula can fully replicate the immunological benefits of mother’s milk. In the summer of 2018, the administration of President Donald Trump provoked dismay among many health authorities by opposing an international resolution to encourage breast-feeding and reportedly threatened Ecuador, the sponsor of the initiative, with trade sanctions if it didn’t change its position. Cynics pointed out that the infant formula industry, which is worth $70 billion a year, might have had a hand in determining the U.S. position. A Department of Health and Human Services spokesperson denied that that was the case and said that America was merely “fighting to protect women’s abilities to make the best choices for the nutrition of their babies” and to make sure that they were not denied access to formula—something the resolution wouldn’t have done anyway.