IT is no secret that breastfeeding is the gold standard of infant feeding. Nevertheless, when medical officer Dr Seri Suniza Sufian was pregnant with her first baby, she wondered what kind of milk would she give to her child.
“I actually had the cheek to think of what milk I was going to give this baby inside my womb,” said Dr Seri, who is now a mother of four fully breastfed children and a consultant in obstetrics and gynaecology.
Speaking on breastfeeding and women’s reproductive health at the Working Women and Breastfeeding forum recently, she recounted her meeting with Breastfeeding Information Bureau President Norjinah Moin, who asked her point blank: “Why do you want to give your child powdered milk or formula?”
Since then Dr Seri never looked back because she knew the answer: that it was only natural and beneficial to both mother and child if she were to breastfeed.
Research has shown babies who are breastfed to be less likely to be infected by a wide range of infectious diseases, including bacterial meningitis (infection of membranes in the brain), diarrhoea, respiratory tract infection and urinary tract infection.
Some studies even suggest breastfeeding may enhance your child’s learning abilities and reduces the rates of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) in the first year of life and type 1 and 2 diabetes mellitus later in life.
“Another benefit of breastfeeding that is not often highlighted is it promotes the normal pattern of swallowing and breathing,” said orthodontist Prof Dr Zamri Radzi. By “exercising” the mouth and facial muscles, sucking on the mother’s breast promotes the child’s orofacial (mouth and face) development.
While a lot of emphasis is placed on the benefits infants can get out of breast milk, mothers benefit too from the act of nursing. A mother who breastfeeds may decrease her chances of experiencing postpartum (after-delivery) bleeding and developing hormone-dependent cancers, like ovarian or breast cancer, if she does not have any other risk factors.
Other benefits include weight loss, uterus contraction to its original size and natural contraception during the first six months of exclusive breastfeeding (baby is fed with breast milk alone).
Besides providing health benefits, breastfeeding is also cost-efficient!
Imagine your baby having to consume a tin of infant formula per week that costs about RM50 to RM60 for one or even two years (in a move to promote breastfeeding, infant formula is not a controlled item in Malaysia). You can save at least RM2,600 per year, not to mention the extra healthcare costs saved with reduced trips to the local doctor – your child tends to fall sick less often due to the antibodies passed down from your milk.
On a larger scale, the potential economic benefits are great. In his review and analysis of the economic benefits of breastfeeding, US Department of Agriculture researcher Jon Weiner reported that a minimum US$3.6bil (RM11bil) of healthcare cost would be saved every year if breastfeeding were increased from current levels in the US (64% in-hospital, 29% at six months) to those recommended by the US Surgeon General (75% and 50%).
Although it is intuitive that similar findings would be found in Malaysia, studies like these have yet to be done locally.
