The image of women who are breastfeeding their babies is so incredible that beautiful and lively paintings and pictures have been created from that source of inspiration. Unfortunately, that image has faded in women’s mind nowadays. In fact, only 15% of American women breast-feed their babies for a year, and that percentage is the lowest rate in the world (Springen 71). Why? Is breastfeeding extremely inconvenient? Is breast milk unhealthy nutrition for precious babies? Does breastfeeding badly affect the mothers? The answer is no - - despite some exceptions. If women examine carefully the breastfeeding issue, they will discover many benefits from breast milk; it contains much valuable nutrition for babies, and it is not only beneficial
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Yet, women seem to forget they have to sterilize their feeding equipment; otherwise, their babies will get bacteria. Breast milk is the purest milk because it comes directly from mothers to their babies. Women can buy in a drugstore inexpensive hand breast pumps which contain a glass cup attached to a rubber bulb; they can have heavy-duty pumps which can empty both breasts in fifteen minutes, but it might cost as much as two hundred and fifty dollars. Mothers who cannot afford that device can rent it for one to three dollars a day, and women in special circumstances can also borrow the device free from some local La Leche League Chapters (Eiger and Olds 164). After finish pumping milk, women just simply pour it into a convenient zip bag in case they go to work. Fortunately, society seems gradually to be changing its attitude toward breastfeeding. Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney of New York is now pushing legislation which grants women unpaid breaks for an hour a day to pump milk. The New Mothers’ Breastfeeding Promotion and Protection Act “gives employers tax breaks for setting up lactation stations” (Springen …show more content…
Breastfeeding reduces the level of stress hormones which flood a woman’s body in response to difficult situation (“Off The Chest” 15). Breastfeeding reduces the risk of ovarian and premenopausal breast cancer (“Benefits” 19). Breastfeeding helps a mother’s uterus, which has increased during pregnancy about twenty times as its normal size, quickly return to former size. As babies are being breast-fed, they stimulate certain nerves in their mothers’ nipples which cause uterine contractions (Eiger and Olds 10). Most women are afraid of getting fat because they believe they have to eat more food so that they can provide enough calories for their babies. Yet, those women who breastfeed will drop four pounds more in the year after they deliver than those who use bottles (Rosenfeld 220). And breastfeeding does not permanently change the shape of the breast, so women do not have to worry about their attractive physical figure (Carlson, Eisenstat, and Ziporyn
Yet, women seem to forget they have to sterilize their feeding equipment; otherwise, their babies will get bacteria. Breast milk is the purest milk because it comes directly from mothers to their babies. Women can buy in a drugstore inexpensive hand breast pumps which contain a glass cup attached to a rubber bulb; they can have heavy-duty pumps which can empty both breasts in fifteen minutes, but it might cost as much as two hundred and fifty dollars. Mothers who cannot afford that device can rent it for one to three dollars a day, and women in special circumstances can also borrow the device free from some local La Leche League Chapters (Eiger and Olds 164). After finish pumping milk, women just simply pour it into a convenient zip bag in case they go to work. Fortunately, society seems gradually to be changing its attitude toward breastfeeding. Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney of New York is now pushing legislation which grants women unpaid breaks for an hour a day to pump milk. The New Mothers’ Breastfeeding Promotion and Protection Act “gives employers tax breaks for setting up lactation stations” (Springen …show more content…
Breastfeeding reduces the level of stress hormones which flood a woman’s body in response to difficult situation (“Off The Chest” 15). Breastfeeding reduces the risk of ovarian and premenopausal breast cancer (“Benefits” 19). Breastfeeding helps a mother’s uterus, which has increased during pregnancy about twenty times as its normal size, quickly return to former size. As babies are being breast-fed, they stimulate certain nerves in their mothers’ nipples which cause uterine contractions (Eiger and Olds 10). Most women are afraid of getting fat because they believe they have to eat more food so that they can provide enough calories for their babies. Yet, those women who breastfeed will drop four pounds more in the year after they deliver than those who use bottles (Rosenfeld 220). And breastfeeding does not permanently change the shape of the breast, so women do not have to worry about their attractive physical figure (Carlson, Eisenstat, and Ziporyn