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Learning About Breast Milk |

Carey Acosta, Lactation Consultant with Homestead Hospital says some of the benefits of breast feeding for a mom are lowering the risk of diabetes and heart disease, and lowering the risk of breast, ovarian and uterine cancer.

She also affirms it can also lower the risk of osteoporosis and Alzheimer. But the best benefit of breast feeding is helping to get the pre-pregnancy weight much quicker.

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends exclusive breastfeeding for about six months in order to get the full benefits for the baby and for the mom, says Nancy Martinez, Mother Baby Clinical Educator with Homestead Hospital who adds the breast milk has antibodies that are getting past the babies and decreases the risk for infections.

Transcript


We read this all the time we’re breastfeeding is quote-unquote the gold standard right ladies so why does it have that title let me start with you Kari. Alright so I’m gonna talk about the moms if you are breastfeeding right now or you plan on breastfeeding some of the benefits for you as a mom lowers your risk of diabetes lowers your risk of heart disease it’s shown that it can lower your risk of getting breast cancer ovarian cancer uterine cancer which is a great thing you know those benefits also osteoporosis and Alzheimer’s as well it can lower your risk of that and the best benefit it gets you back to your pre-pregnancy weight much quicker. This is true we see a lot of women who breastfeed and they drop the weight within weeks which is fantastic also I wanted to ask you Nancy if you don’t mind the length of time you know it varies some women will do it for a couple of weeks just to maybe get the colostrum is that what it’s called the colostrum which please explain to our viewers what that is in case they don’t know some will do it for six weeks is there a recommended time? There’s a recommended time from the American Academy of Pediatrics they do recommend exclusive breastfeeding to get the full benefits to the baby and for the mom for about six months but we know that many people make it to their personal choice they can start breastfeeding is even if you can do a week two weeks it’s it’s up to you we know a lot of moms in the United States actually have to go back to work in three months and so you might have different plans and you might want to supplement at that time but you still can breastfeed you can actually supplement and breast pump the milk out and store it to give to another time so there really is no time anytime that you get with the breast milk because we know if what she said it’s such a gold standard the benefits for the baby are there’s so many out there and one of the huge ones is that actually the breast milk has antibodies that are getting past the baby decreases the risk for infection so they’re going to have less ear infections they’re gonna have less respiratory illnesses it decreases their chances of obesity long-term diabetes the benefits there for infants yet obviously have you to Cerritos and there’s a decrease of 50% of SIDS related that sudden infant syndrome so there’s many benefits that it’s easy to digest so they have less tummy issues than compared to what formula.

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