Congrats! You are pregnant and you’ve decided to start thinking about how you will be feeding your little one once he or she arrives. The decision may come easily for some, but for others, the choice between bottle and breast is one that takes some thinking. Here are several advantages and disadvantages of breastfeeding if you’re having a hard time deciding if breastfeeding is for you.
Advantages of Breastfeeding
- Breastfeeding can lower illness in babies, such as ear infections, allergies, respiratory issues, colds and viruses, diabetes, insulin dependent diabetes, a number of childhood cancers and ovarian cancer and breast cancer.
- Breastfeeding also lowers your chance of getting breast cancer.
- Your breast milk is filled with antibodies that your body’s immune system makes and then gets passed through your milk on to your baby. Nursing also allows your baby to give germs to you so that your immune system can respond and can synthesize antibodies! This means that if your baby has come in contact with something which you have not, he or she will pass these germs to you at the next nursing; during that feeding, your body will start to manufacture antibodies for that particular germ. This doesn’t mean that your baby will never get sick, but when they do, generally the illness is less severe and the duration is shorter. My daughter had a runny nose and a cough and of course my son caught whatever she had. Her nose was running for almost a week and his was only bad for a few days, and he wasn’t coughing nearly as bad as she was. She was breastfed as well, but is now nearly 4 years old, so her system is changing.
- Another advantage of breastfeeding is the cost. It’s free! It’s always waiting for your baby. A typical canister of formula can cost over $20 for the name brand stuff. Yes, there are store brands as well, but what cost is better than free?
- With breastfeeding, you do not have to wake up in the middle of the night preparing bottles for baby. You do not need to sterilize your nipples. You do not have to put your nipples in the dishwasher every night, and there are no special things that you need to buy unless you plan on pumping for your baby as well. I know that with my last 3 children, I really appreciated the lack of bottles and waking at 2 am to head to the kitchen to warm up a bottle. My breasts have the perfect mixtures at the perfect temperature!
- Nursing may also help you lose weight as you burn around 500 calories or more each day while nursing. I have not been as lucky in the weight loss department. I think I tend to hang on to my weight until my baby weans or at least cuts down on some feedings during the day when we introduce solid foods. But some ladies have great results nursing, returning down to their pre-pregnancy weight in the first 6 months.
Disadvantages of Breastfeeding
- Stress in the early weeks can have an effect on your supply, which is a disadvantage in breastfeeding. Everyone told me “sleep when baby sleeps.” Well, when you have 5 children, that just isn’t possible. If I slept when baby slept, my house would never get cleaned and dinner would never be made. I know that when I was trying to get things done around here, my stress level was super high and it would impact my letdown phase. This resulted in him needing to eat even more often because he wasn’t getting as much as he should, which then again stressed me out. It’s like a vicious cycle! My advice would be to nurse baby when he needs to nurse, get him situated, drink your water while nursing and everything else can wait until he is sleeping. If you have to put off loading the dishwasher until after he is in bed for the night, just keep in mind that he will not be little forever, and this phase will pass! Don’t let things stress you out or you may then be having to deal with getting your milk supply back up to par.
- Another disadvantage to nursing is that dad may feel left out because he cannot help feed the baby, or siblings might be jealous that mom has to always tend to the baby. I am dealing with my 4 year old daughter “regressing” in a few ways. She has begun to whine more than normal, talk in baby talk, and just acting out in general. What I’ve been doing is trying to play with her while I nurse the baby, or read her some books while he’s sleeping in my lap. She understands that when I am feeding him or while he’s napping on me that I cannot get up and do things with her, but we utilize our time by doing quiet things. Even if its just a cuddling together on the couch while watching TV. She just enjoys the same mommy time as before the baby came. In regards to dad feeling left out, I never really had to deal with that. He appreciates that I am nursing the baby because he understands the benefits. In the beginning I was pumping and he would occasionally give him a few ounces in the bottle at night if needed. This is a great thing to get dad involved. Even something as simple as you nursing the baby and then handing him to dad to do the burping. Make sure that dad is getting that one-on-one time as well.
- If you are a discreet person, nursing in public may make you feel a little uneasy. It’s not as easy as just pulling out some formula in a bottle and sitting down on the bench in the mall. Sure it’s easy to cover up when baby is little, but once he grows and decides he doesn’t like the nursing cover, then you may have to do without it. Don’t let this discourage you though, you will figure out how to make it work (here is a post with tips to help you along the way!).
Sure, breastfeeding is a lot of work, but don’t let that discourage you from giving your baby the best start in life. I encourage you to take everything into consideration—both the advantages and disadvantages of breastfeeding—and really think about it and make the best informed choice that you can make!
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