Breastfeeding Awareness and Developmental Benefits
Breastfeeding is a shared human experience all over the world as a natural aspect of caring for babies. World breastfeeding week falls in August, and during that week, people around the world join together to promote one of WABA’s objectives: to “focus on the impact of infant feeding on the environment/climate change and the imperative to protect, promote and support breastfeeding for the health of the planet and its people,” along with other ways to enable breastfeeding and empower parents. Supporting parents is important because there are so many benefits for both the mother and the child as a result of breastfeeding, many of which are developmental.
Why is Breastfeeding Important?
Breast milk is perfectly suited with the nutrients needed for a baby’s development and contains additional benefits like anti-inflammatory properties and immune system protections that serve as a guard for many different kinds of diseases - not just for the baby, but for the mother as well. It can reduce the risk of developing other diseases of varying types like chronic ear infections to diabetes.
In addition to the many overall health benefits of breastfeeding, there are specific benefits tied to a child’s development.
Speech and Language Development
While many speech delays are not due to developmental issues, often, speech can be affected by factors in a baby’s development. One factor could be the oral coordination to suck, swallow, and breathe that happens while breastfeeding. Oral motor function is strengthened through the jaw, tongue, and mouth which can help when a child is learning language and patterns of speech.
Building strong muscles throughout the mouth and lips can aid in making different linguistic sounds as a child begins to learn how to speak. While bottle-feeding does apply some of the same strengthening techniques, there are far fewer due to things like a more open flow on the top of the bottle, which requires less effort in muscle training. The nutrients provided in breast milk can also aid in the development of the areas of the brain where memory and language are processed.
Advanced Motor Skill Development
One of the compounds present in breast milk is DHA (docosahexaenoic & arachidonic acid) has been linked to other benefits in cognition as well as motor skills. Both fine and gross motor skills have shown to be affected by the presence of DHA in a baby’s diet and significantly increase the development of the part of the brain which incites these functions. The measurable benefits from breast milk in muscle coordination and motor skills make it a smart addition to a baby’s nutrition.
Behavioral Relation
Often, kids with behavioral issues have aspects of their development that could provide cause - whether that is cognitive development issues leading to mistakes or problems understanding, or motor development leading to lack of coordination and frustration - the source could be related to overall development during infancy. Brain development in the areas involving language, fine and gross motor skills, and cognition could be affected positively by breast milk in the early stages of life. Breast milk could lead to less behavioral issues when they are tied to underlying developmental issues.
Benefit for Baby & Mom
There are plenty of resources for new parents to learn about all the benefits breast milk has for both baby and mom. Moms have a reduced risk of breast and ovarian cancer if they have breast fed. Infants and mothers both have a reduced risk of illness during the breastfeeding stages, but for infants, it can carry the benefit long into their lives, even seeing positive effects into their teen years. Weight management, immunological benefits, anti-inflammatory properties, and so much more can be a result of breastfeeding.
Many women face difficulties in breastfeeding or may not have been taught good techniques for breastfeeding. In Las Vegas, there are lots of wonderful resources parents can receive to learn about breastfeeding, get help or support, or to connect with specialists for your own unique reasons. Here are three resources you can reach out to specifically in the Southern Nevada community:
Advanced Breastfeeding Support of Las Vegas
This organization can provide many different services to aid in your breastfeeding journey. Choose from different packages depending on your needs and can accommodate in-home or office visits. They also offer virtual consults along with learning about pumping or returning to work when that time comes. Although most of their services come with a fee, they do ask that Medicaid or WIC recipients get in contact with them to learn more.
https://breastfeedingsupportlv.com
Nevada WIC
With different facility locations you can visit, Nevada WIC offers a peer-to-peer breastfeeding support program in addition to their many free resources like lactation consultant referrals, pumps, literature, and more. Their goal is to provide support and instruction from other moms to both expectant and new mothers to give them the best resources possible to promote breastfeeding. Find a group near you and learn more about the services they offer:
http://nevadawic.org/breastfeeding/
Southern Hills Hospital
Find a breastfeeding support group available free of charge where you can connect with other moms or moms-to-be and learn more about breastfeeding. They offer things like weight checks before and after feeding, open sharing of different experiences, questions, or concerns, along with hospital-grade breast pumps for rent. The groups are presented by lactation specialists at the hospital - check out their schedule to find out when you can attend:
https://southernhillshospital.com/service/breastfeeding-support-group
Tilton’s Therapy for Tots is dedicated to providing parents with the best resources available to them in their community and beyond. While many people are aware of some of the health benefits for moms and babies while breastfeeding, the lesser known developmental benefits are very important to learn about. Learn more about breastfeeding through some of our additional resources below.
Resources and Studies Referenced:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK52687/
https://worldbreastfeedingweek.org
https://news.brown.edu/articles/2013/06/breastfeeding
https://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/139/4/e20161848
https://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/119/Supplement_1/S92
https://adc.bmj.com/content/archdischild/64/11/1570.full.pdf
