Breast Feeding

Breast Feeding

Introduction

The Innocenti Declaration (WHO, 1990), which has been adopted by the WHO and UNICEF, recognises the need for protection, promotion and support of breast-feeding. Providing skilled breast-feeding support has been identified as an effective way of enabling women to breast feed but few specify the nature of 'support' and how it affects women's experiences. Indeed the term 'support' is widely referred to, but its meaning is often unclear making the interpretation of studies problematic.

Joffe and Radius (1997)refers to five components of support: emotional support (empathy, caring and concern); esteem support (positive regard and encouragement); instrumental support (practical assistance); informational support (provision of information); and network support (group/peer support). These components are useful for exploring the literature around support needs of breast-feeding women in general. Emotional support is identified by women as crucial, and includes staff showing sensitivity and care. Included in this type of support is the ability of women to secure staff time and availability. Women also prefer a quiet environment in which they feel rested, confident and less anxious(Ingram 2002).

Esteem support, incorporating agreement, encouragement and positive regard, is highly valued by women. Women often welcome practical (or 'instrumental') support with breast-feeding when it is required, and a wealth of evidence suggests that women value provision of informational support in the form of consistent and accurate information given by knowledgeable staff.

Discussion

Breastfeeding not only aids in the growth of the child, but it in many ways has advantages to the mother. There are small chances that while breastfeeding it may be painful at first and the nipple may be become engorged and hard. But it is a small price to pay for all of the advantages that come with breastfeeding. The most obvious advantages are no bottles to sterilize, no formula to buy, and no chance of the temperature of the milk being fatal. There have been a few cases where the formula has been overheated and thus causing severe burns to the mouth of the infant(Humenick 1998).

The not so obvious benefits of breast feeding for mothers is that while breastfeeding it makes it much easier for a mother to lose the weight that she gained from the pregnancy. Breastfeeding puts an extra five hundred calories into the mother's diet a day, so by breastfeeding it take away almost one-hundred percent of those calories. However, it is not only weight that makes the mother assume a larger girth. Once the mother has gone through nine months of pregnancy her uterus has increased by about twenty times its normal size, but as the baby sucks on the mother's breast the process of lactating helps the uterus shrink at a much faster rate (Arulkumaran 804). Many complaints about being a mother who breastfeeds is that the mother must change her entire lifestyle in order to breastfeed. A mother must wear clothing that is easily accessible and whenever the baby is hungry she must find a private place to undress and feed the child. On the other hand this can ...