Saturday, July 7, 2007

Would you like to save money on your child's future health?

Would you like to have less visits to see speech therapists and orthodontists?

According to ProMom's 101 Reasons to Breastfeed (which most of the reasons have sources listed to back up their claims). You can save money and time on these things just by breastfeeding! How cool is that?

But wait there's more!

What about a better behaved child? According to Sally Kneidel breastfeeding can help in this arena too! Sure there are lots of variables and we are responsible to train our children but hey, if something can help why not put it in the parenting toolbox?

But wait again...there is even MORE!

What about being blessed by God? Does the Bible really say anything about breastfeeding in connection with mothering? Nancy Campbell who started Above Rubies thinks so and I have to agree.

God's plan for women is to be nurturers in the home and nurturers in society.When do we start nurturing? At the moment of conception. As soon as we know there is life within our womb, we should begin nurturing and loving the developing baby.


Once the baby is born, we begin nurturing the babe at the breast. God created us with breasts to nourish babies. This is His divine plan.


In Exodus 2:9 Pharaoh's daughter said to Moses' mother, "Take this child, and nurse it for me, and I will give thee thy wages." I believe God says these same words to every mother as He gives to us the gift of a child. Entailed in these words are the nurturing and training of the child from infancy to
adulthood. But the very first task is to nurse and nourish the baby at the breast. God gave breasts, not only for the beauty of a woman's figure, but to function. When a mother chooses not to nurse her baby, she does so to her own detriment, apart from the fact that her baby does not receive the perfect food that he/she is meant to receive. Breastfeeding is a biological function of our womanhood. We are benefited when we use this function.


(Bold emphasis mine.) Read the rest of the article here.

As any mother knows, breastfeeding while being a natural process takes practice and most mothers need support and help to get started and also to get through the little and not-so-little hurdles that pop up. So a post on the benefits of breastfeeding wouldn't be complete without some links to places that you can receive support and help to successfully breastfeed.

In Australia, the Australian Breastfeeding Association has breastfeeding classes to do before birth, online forums, local support groups and a phone hotline. So, if you are in Australia please please check them out, join them and receive the support that is available. Oh and DO use the hotline. They are more than happy to help and they will NOT judge you for your choices in any way! Promise! To provide breastfeeding information, encouragement and support is what they exist for.

Online there is a myriad of information available.

KellyMom is a site run by a lady in the US but it has a LOT of relevant information and is super helpful. If you're worried about your supply her Enough Milk? fact sheet is reassuring in most cases that YES you do have enough milk!

Nursing by Design is a Christian LiveJournal Community set up to encourage Christian mothers in breastfeeding. Their Top Ten Tips for new mothers is one of the best I've seen around.

YouTube has videos to watch regarding correct attachment of the baby to the breast. Just search for "breastfeeding help".

I think I'd better leave it there. As you may have gathered I'm a fairly passionate breastfeeder/lactivist. However, I will be one of the first to say: there are no rules with breastfeeding and I do not seek to make formula feeding mothers guilty. I merely want to encourage mothers to give it a try and share what a blessing it has been to our family.

4 comments:

Matthew said...

Wow . . . who knew I had such an enthusiastic blogger for a wife? (Actually, I did know she was pretty enthusiastic . . . that's one of the reasons I married her.)

TulipGirl said...

Excellent, excellent post!

Anonymous said...

Hi Rach! This is so random, I stumbled onto your site from a link on the ylcf courtship stories page. I didn't reasise it was you guys for a few minutes! Anyway, glad to hear you're well and see pics of Shelby
Love and prayers, Erin (from Talua mission, remember?)

Anonymous said...

Thank you Rachel for the great information. I read your anti-Ezzo comment on the YLCF blog and knew I had to come and see your blog. I also am anti-Ezzo (very strongly) and very pro-breastfeeding (even into the toddler years...it is so rare to find someone these days who nurses so long). Although it's still a few years away (I'm in my teens), I plan on breastfeeding my own children in the future.

Keep up the good work!

A young reader