Before I get into the 10 reason why I love breastfeeding/chestfeeding, I want to say I found it hard to breastfeed at the start and I would have given up if I didn’t have great support. Some people are lucky that it’s easy for them, but for me it wasn’t. But once I had Willow’s tongue tie cut and worked out what was causing Oakley’s reflux feeding instantly improved.
Even with these difficulties, I still absolutely love it.
1.It’s a superpower!
Breastfeeding/chestfeeding is a superpower; it feels like it’s the answer to everything. “If in doubt get your boob out” is my motto :), if your baby is hungry (obviously), upset, unwell, hurt themselves, teething, tired, grumpy, and even for jabs the boob instantly stops a baby crying. When I stopped breastfeeding Willow at 15 months, I thought “oh shit I’m actually going to have to parent now”.
2.It’s convenient
It’s always available and at the right temperature, no need to worry about sterilising bottles or if you have enough formula. For babies under 6 months, milk is the only food they need. If they want a quick drink/snack it’s available whenever they want. You can feed your baby anywhere and at any time. I feed Oakley in a sling so I can run around after Willow.
3.Bonding
When you breastfeed/chestfeed your baby you release a hormone called oxytocin “the love hormone”, you feel loved when feeding and cuddling your baby. The skin to skin is soothing and comforting for the baby and creates a strong attachment between you both.
I love this cuddle time, and if they fall asleep while feeding then I embrace the contact nap. (More cuddles = more feeling loved)
4.Weight Loss
You burn about 500 calories a day from breastfeeding/chestfeeding, for me I managed to lose my pregnancy weight from feeding and I also enjoyed lots of guilt free cake 🙂 (I do exercise and eat healthy too)
5.Human milk adapts
It’s adapting to your baby’s needs, it changes due to the weather, the time of day, if your baby is poorly or if they are going through a growth spurt. It’s so bloody clever! I’m in awe of my body and what it can do.
6.Sleep
Yes, my babies wake for feeds, but human milk is full of amazing hormones and night human milk contains hormones to help baby go back to sleep quickly. I co-sleep and when I hear the baby wake, I feed lying on my side, I fall back to sleep instantly, and the baby falls asleep feeding. It works perfectly for us. With co-sleeping I always follow the lullaby trust safe sleep rules. It’s normal for babies to wake and want you, they don’t need to be trained to sleep longer, this will happen when they are developmentally ready.
7.No periods
Every person is different, but for me, I don’t have periods while I’m breastfeeding!
8.It’s free
What more is there to say, it’s FREE. I must have saved so much money from not buying formula.
I know this is a controversial thing to say, as some people think it is saying that our time and effort isn’t valued. But what about formula feeding parents, are their time not valued. The thing with parenthood, everyone is working their ass off and it’s bloody exhausting.
But what about pumps, nursing bras, nursing pads, nursing clothes, nursing pillows or a fancy feeding chair. We actually don’t NEED any of these things.
9.I’m my baby’s dummy
I like that I was my baby’s dummy, I feed to sleep, it’s the quickest and easiest way to get my baby to sleep or to stop crying. This is normal and don’t listen to anyone that tells you it’s not. You are comforting and supporting your baby.
10.I enjoyed donating milk
With Willow I managed to pump 100ml of milk a day for the local NICU milk bank, I liked that I was helping other babies and families. I planned on pumping once I had Oakley, but even though you produce more milk with each pregnancy, I just couldn’t pump. With Willow I would pump 5 minutes first thing in the morning and get 100ml, but this time around I wouldn’t even get 20ml, it would take 5-6 pumping sessions to get 100ml of milk in a day. Running around after a toddler and caring for a baby, I couldn’t do it. Oakley feeds less than what Willow did, but I think she’s a more efficient feeder and doesn’t want to share her milk. 😉
*This is my personal experience, with baby feeding I very much believe “supported is best”. If you want to feed your baby formula that’s cool, but what breaks my heart is that a lot of breastfeeding/chestfeeding parents stop before they want too, this can be down to lack of support or being giving incorrect information. There is always breastfeeding/chestfeeding support available, it’s just hard to find and a lot of it is run by volunteers, and these volunteers have more breastfeeding knowledge than doctors and health visitors, crazy right!
