Nature made sure that within a few hours after the birth of a child, a woman could begin to feed him with breast milk. This is the most useful and necessary food for a baby. However, sometimes situations arise when breastfeeding is not possible.
Influence of the first hours of a baby's life on the way of feeding
The first tests on the way of the natural process of feeding the baby may occur even in the hospital. So, not all childbirth goes smoothly, and severe birth trauma may require the separation of the mother and the child, the transfer of the baby to the intensive care unit or simply to the children's department, where he will be under constant supervision of doctors.
In spite of everything, milk begins to appear in large quantities in the mammary glands of a woman within 5-6 hours after childbirth. Therefore, if the mother cannot immediately start feeding the baby, she has to express colostrum so as not to provoke the onset of mastitis. The child at this time eats mixtures. Therefore, an exciting question arises: will the baby then take the breast?
Reasons that can interfere with breastfeeding
When the baby and mother are reunited after the difficulty of the first days in the hospital, the baby may refuse to breast, because he is already used to the taste of mixtures. Moreover, when feeding with a bottle, the baby has to make less effort to get milk into the mouth. Therefore, some kids categorically do not breastfeed, cry and get nervous.
Another possible scenario is that a woman begins to experience unbearable pain when feeding a child. Wounds and cracks appear on the nipples, and comfortable feeding becomes impossible.
In this case, mothers resort to feeding the baby with expressed breast milk. In any case, this is much more useful than using a mixture, albeit the most modern and adapted one. However, this method of feeding is not an absolute alternative to natural feeding, although it is much healthier for the baby than completely artificial feeding.
Frozen expressed milk will help out in cases when the mother, for some reason, will be away from the baby and will not be able to feed him herself.
Negative aspects of bottle feeding
The biggest and most significant disadvantage when feeding expressed milk is the lack of bodily contact between the baby and the mother. But it is so important for a child in the first months of life to constantly feel his mother next to her, her smell, warmth, touch. Therefore, even if there is a need for such feeding, hug the baby as often as possible and carry him in your arms.
Mother's milk is necessary for the formation of strong immunity in the baby.
Milk left for storage or even frozen will still lose some of its beneficial properties. In addition, it is deprived of hormones that are released only during natural sucking. Also, the bottle does not allow the baby to fully control the rate of milk flow.
Try to use all methods to maintain or resume the process of breastfeeding, and only as a last resort, feed the baby with expressed milk.
