I\u2019m an avid breastfeeder.\u00a0 Neither of my girls ever had a drop of formula and I don\u2019t intend for Doodle to ever have any either.\u00a0 I am pro-breastfeeding for so many reasons but the main reason is for the health of my children.\u00a0 I\u2019ve always planned to be breast milk only but this decision for me was intensified when Honeybun\u00a0was a baby.\u00a0 I went back to work at a childcare center when she was 6 weeks old and one morning I dripped some formula from another baby\u2019s bottle on my pants.\u00a0 I still have those pants and despite many attempts at cleaning and stain removing, that spot is still there and all I\u2019ve been able to think since is \u201cIf that is what happened to my pants, what does the inside of that child look like?\u201d\u00a0 I realize it\u2019s a bit extreme but it really bothered me and just gave me motivation for my breastfeeding choice.<\/p>\n
The choice to breastfeed is obviously a very personal one and one that not all moms are able or willing to make but for me, it just makes sense all around. Most everyone knows now that it is what is truly best for the baby and a lot of people have learned of the benefits to mom but few people think about the benefits to the entire family and wider world.<\/p>\n
The most obvious advantage to a family that chooses breastfeeding is the cost.\u00a0 It is estimated that, on average, a year\u2019s worth of baby formula costs $1500 (and can be much more depending on what brand and type you use).\u00a0 But for me, another big advantage is the time and stress savings.\u00a0 I don\u2019t have to warm, wash or sterilize bottles.\u00a0 I don\u2019t have to mix bottles.\u00a0 I don\u2019t have to run out to the store when I\u2019m running low on formula.\u00a0 It also relieves the stress of night feeds and of having a hungry baby, there is no making a hungry baby wait while you prepare the feed and there is no additional work during the night.\u00a0 When baby is hungry, I pick him up, feed him, and when he is done I burp him and we’re done.\u00a0 This leaves more time for me to do other things like play with my girls, prepare meals and do necessary chores.<\/p>\n
There is also an advantage to the environment.\u00a0 I\u2019m not throwing heaps of plastic formula containers into the landfill.\u00a0 I\u2019m not using water to wash bottles and I\u2019m not adding extra cleaning chemicals into the water supply.\u00a0 For a mother who exclusively breastfeeds (at the breast, not breast milk in bottles), there are no waste products beyond what a mother would use for herself was she not breastfeeding.<\/p>\n
And even less thought about is the advantage of breastfeeding in regards to others while out with baby.\u00a0 I am not going to be taking a mall chair away from an elderly person for a half hour while baby feeds.\u00a0 I put baby on my boob in a sling and continue my shopping.\u00a0 I also am not going to hold up security at the airport with my \u201callowable liquids\u201d, they\u2019re nicely contained where no one is going to want to check them for explosives.\u00a0 I also will not waste your waitress or flight attendants time by asking them to heat a bottle for me. \u00a0My milk is ready to go at all times, no prep needed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I\u2019m an avid breastfeeder.\u00a0 Neither of my girls ever had a drop of formula and I don\u2019t intend for Doodle to ever have any either.\u00a0 I am pro-breastfeeding for so many reasons but the main reason is for the health of my children.\u00a0 I\u2019ve always planned to be breast milk only but this decision for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,8,16,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-827","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-a-mommys-life","category-baby-business","category-breastfeeding","category-family-life"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/827","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=827"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/827\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5604,"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/827\/revisions\/5604"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=827"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=827"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=827"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}