Exclusive breastfeeding consists of feeding the baby with breast milk, without providing any other solid or different liquid, not even water. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends that this be the method used, if possible, to feed newborns during the first six months of life. Subsequently, they should begin to introduce other foods, gradually, and maintain breastfeeding until at least two years of life.
Benefits of breastfeeding
Numerous studies have shown the obvious: as the food we produce to nourish our young, breast milk is safe and contains all the necessary nutrients to ensure proper growth and development during the first months of the baby’s life.
“Breast milk is the appropriate food for each infant, it contains all the necessary nutrients and is also modified over time to provide what is necessary at each moment of growth. For example, the milk of a mother of a premature baby is not the same that of one who is born at term , and the milk of the first days is not the same as that of the later weeks “, explains Eduard Solé Mir, Head of the Pediatric Service of the Hospital Universitari Arnau de Vilanova (Lleida).
It has been seen that breastfed infants have a lower incidence of allergic problems and in adulthood less incidence of metabolic problems such as obesity, hypertension or diabetes.
Breast milk also contains antibodies that protect infants from diseases such as diarrhea and pneumonia, which are very common and the leading causes of infant mortality in the world. It should be noted, however, that these benefits are not cumulative, that is: at the end of breastfeeding, the protective effect also ends, as certain studies have shown.
The benefits of breastfeeding are not limited to nutrition and health. Experts point out that breastfeeding is strengthening the emotional bond between mother and child, something as necessary as feeding to ensure a good development of the baby.
The mother also receives many rewards when breastfeeding because, in addition to working as a natural contraceptive method during the first months ( Beware! It is not 100% safe at all ), it has also been shown to reduce the risk of breast and ovarian cancer , type 2 diabetes and postpartum depression.
WHO recommendations for breastfeeding
World Lactation Week is celebrated every year between August 1 and 7 , and its objective is to promote breastfeeding since, worldwide, only 40% of infants under six months of age receive breast milk as their exclusive diet. .
For this, the WHO offers a decalogue with data and recommendations:
- Exclusive breastfeeding is recommended for the first six months of life.
- Breastfeeding protects your baby from many diseases.
- In mothers, it reduces the risk of breast and ovarian cancer.
- Breastfeeding is healthy.
- Breast milk is more complete than artificial milk, since the latter does not contain the antibodies present in breast milk.
- HIV can be transmitted through breast milk. However, antiretrovirals reduce the risk of transmission.
- The distribution of free samples of breast milk substitutes is prohibited. Furthermore, the marketing of breast milk substitutes is under intense surveillance.
- Many women have problems when they start to breastfeed and need advice and support.
- Returning to work is a frequent cause of breastfeeding abandonment.
- From six months on, new foods must be introduced progressively.
Exclusive breastfeeding
One wonders why this insistence on breastfeeding. Well, in addition to the benefits on the health of mother and child, which are well known and well documented, we must remember that a large part of the world’s population does not have access to water in acceptable conditions for human consumption. In this context, let us consider that preparing a bottle of artificial milk with undrinkable water exponentially increases the risk of contracting infections, endangering the health of newborns, whose defense systems are still very weak.
According to the WHO, malnutrition could be responsible for approximately a third of deaths of children under five years of age worldwide, and a good part of these deaths occur during the first year of life, a period in which breast milk it should be the main food. An article published in The Lancet concluded that if almost all children were breastfed, about 820,000 infant lives would be saved each year.
Surely in developed countries there are no great differences between feeding babies with breast or artificial milk, as the report ‘Breastfeeding under the magnifying glass of science’ published in Sinc in 2016 explains well, but in many regions with problems hygiene and water safety, the decision to exclusively breastfeed can even save lives.
In any case, what is clear is that exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months of life is a safe and healthy option , as demonstrated by the comprehensive 2012 Cochrane medical review, which concludes as follows:
“Babies who are exclusively breastfed for six months experience less morbidity from gastrointestinal infection, and no growth deficits have been shown. In addition, the mothers of these children have amenorrhea (absence of menstruation) of more prolonged lactation. The available evidence shows no apparent risks in recommending, as a general policy, exclusive breastfeeding during the first six months of life in both developing and developed countries ”.
Breastfeeding, a free decision that deserves to be respected
In recent years, the health authorities have made a great effort to promote breastfeeding, and on many occasions this insistence seems to have produced an unwanted effect, and that is that many mothers who do not want or cannot breastfeed feel guilty and attacked by much of society.
Ultimately, the key point is that the decision to breastfeed the baby must be free and respected. The important thing is that parents have access to reliable information about the advantages of one or another method and, choose the way they choose to feed their children, do it without pressure and have facilities for it.
Difficulty breastfeeding
We have already seen the theory and benefits of breastfeeding. We have also seen that the decision not to give it is completely respectable and no one should feel guilty about opting for bottle feeding.
So far so good, but what if you opt for exclusive breastfeeding? For those who have never breastfed, the act of breastfeeding can seem beautiful and idyllic, a natural moment of total communion between the mother and her newborn.
But the reality is quite different. Establishing breastfeeding is difficult, especially if it has not been encouraged during the first hours of the baby’s life and if the mother has not obtained the necessary support. Cracks in the nipple, problems of correct latching, doubts about whether the baby is eating what he needs, mastitis … mothers who want to breastfeed find many difficulties, and many times the environment that surrounds them, even if it is loaded with good intentions , does not favor in any way the establishment of breastfeeding.
On the other hand, and as we have already seen, returning to work is one of the main causes of breastfeeding abandonment , at least in developed countries. In Spain, for example, maternity leave only lasts 16 weeks, and many mothers enter the workplace when their babies are barely four months old, so feeding the child exclusively breast milk under these conditions becomes a utopia . Some women resort to expressing milk with the breast pump, but it is a very cumbersome and time-consuming practice, and in most companies there are no comfortable and suitable places to do it.
On the one hand, parents are subjected to a continuous ‘crushing’ of campaigns that affect the importance of exclusive breastfeeding, but on the other, the reality of work and the lack of conciliation measures make many people who want to continue They do not get that option, and also feel guilty about it. In the end, breastfeeding, an issue that should not be controversial or complicated, becomes a thorny issue , which generates debate, guilt and problems … as we have already said, nothing could be further from that idyllic and beautiful image of such an act normal and natural and like life itself.
Advisor: Dr. Eduard Solé Mir, Head of the Pediatrics Service of the Hospital Universitari Arnau de Vilanova, Lleida, and member of Top Doctors
