Infant Feeding: Natural Breast or Formula feeding

Chapter I

Statement of the problem

The purpose of this research is to increase the knowledge about the relationship of the correlations between infant feeding method (breastfeed and formula feed.

Background of Study

There is a need for programs to provide awareness of feeding to women before and during pregnancy. There is strong and consistent evidence that feeding mother's own milk to pre-term infants of any gestation is associated with a lower incidence of infections and necrotizing enter colitis, and improved neurodevelopment outcome as compared with formula feeding. Feeding un-supplemented mother's own milk to pre-term infants <1500 g resulted in slower weight and length gains, but the implications of this slower growth are unclear and there is not enough evidence to assess if it increased the risk of malnutrition. Long-term beneficial consequences of breastfeeding on body-fluid pressure, serum lipid profile or pro-insulin levels have also been described for pre-term infants.

Purpose of study

Awareness of feeding before child birth may be influenced through promotion of breastfeeding culture, and positive health behaviors among postpartum women. An increase in the knowledge of variables related to relapse and positive health behaviors may improve future for child development.

Significance of study

When mothers begin to breast-feed and are thenforced to stop they experience grief with prolonged mourning anddepression. Breast milk jaundice iscommon and a subject of controversy. Still other studies showthat some infants are sensitive to soy formulas as well as bovine formulas. A negative relationship between diabetes and breast-feeding has also been found. Refrigerator storage has been reported to actually decreasebacterial growth in colostrum or mature milk (Guerrero, 1999). Differences in mothers mood states with regard to feeding method havebeen studied. Emotions surrounding the issue are complex. The renewed interest in breast-feeding has taken place during atime when the formula industry is highly developed. Changes insanitation, medical care, and understanding that milk needs to bepasteurized have led to the development of human milk substitutes.

Research Question

What is the relationship between brestfeedingfeeding method and formula feeding in the postpartum period?

Hypothesis Analysis

This study quantitatively investigated the influence of breast-feeding on theoccurrence of illnesses in infants age 0-6 months. Fully breast-fed babies werecompared with fully formula-fed babies for the occurrences of infectious diseases.Briefly, medical records and questionnaires were both used to correlate and corroboratedata provided on the feeding methods and infant health. This design was similar informat to that of Wright, et al. (1998) in the determination of eligibility of the participantsas well as the method of data collection and analysis. The subjects were recruited from a population of 500 infants bornbetween January 1, 2004 and March 1, 2005 from three hospitals in NortheastTennessee. These were Holston Valley in Kingsport, TN, Johnson City Medical Centerin Johnson City, TN, and Laughlin Memorial Hospital in Greeneville, TN. Infants chosenhad completed gestation of >37 weeks, weighed >6 lbs. at birth, and had no apparentcongenital defects of malignancies. Bias of reverse causality was prevented byeliminating infants of low birth weight and other medical conditions which would have

precluded breast-feeding from being a viable ...