• Breastfed children have a lower incidence of allergies than formula-fed ones (Host A., et al. A prospective study of cow's milk allergy in exclusively breastfed infants. Acta Paediatrica Scand 77:663-670, 1988)
• Formula-feeding is a risk factor in the appearance of juvenile diabetes (Borch-Johnson, K., et al., Relation between breastfeeding and incidence of insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus. Lancet 2:1083-86, 1984)
• Babies who are breastfed have a reduced risk of developing chronic constipation, diarrhea or other digestive conditions, as well as less risk for developing tooth decay, iron-deficiency anemia or ear infections.

Moms who breastfeed their babies will enjoy the following advantages:

• An excellent opportunity for enhancing the mother-child bondage, which is essential for the normal development of the child
• A better rest at night, because the baby’s food is already prepared, they only have to latch on the little one at their breast and wait until it’s full, without worrying for cleaning and sterilizing the bottles of for preparing the formula
• Less postpartum bleeding and a faster recovery

Breastfeeding Misconceptions

Breastfeeding moms are stuck at home until they put their babies on solid food.

This is a wrong belief. In reality, nursing is the fastest and easiest way to feed an infant, wherever you may be, as you don’t have to carry all those bottles and accessories with you, nor you’ll need to make sure you always have enough of the formula available. In case you want to leave the baby at home for a while, you can milk yourself with a pump and store the milk in bottles or in special containers, in the freezer.

Breastfeeding Affects Your Sex Life

Having a baby affects it more or less anyway, so there’s no serious reason for not breastfeeding if you can do it.

Breast Size Matters

This is another misconception that women with bigger breasts can produce more milk. The milk quantity is not in relation with the size of the breasts. Any lactation consultant would tell you the same thing. No matter how healthy it might prove to be for the infant, there are situations in which breastfeeding is not indicated. Such situations include health problems of the mother or baby mouth birth defects like cleft lip or cleft palate. The doctor is the only one who is able to decide what’s best for the baby, by thoroughly balancing the benefits and drawbacks of nursing for each specific case.

The Role of Nursing Pillows

Although they are not indispensable, nursing pillows can help you find and maintain the best position for holding the baby while breastfeeding. The main idea here is that an incorrect position brings multiple troubles and may even lead to very early weaning of the infant. The most common trouble caused by wrongly holding the baby is nipple soreness: in the ideal situation, the nipple should be pointed towards the upper part of the mouth, which doesn’t have an active role in the sucking process. If you don’t manage to find the right angle, the baby’s jaw movement would most probably affect the nipple, causing soreness or even wounds which could prevent you from keeping on with the breastfeeding.

You may wonder what’s so special about this type of pillow that you can’t just use an ordinary one to hold the baby. It is indeed special, because it’s specially designed to wrap around the mommy’s waist, thanks to an adjustable strap, it provides backrest support for you, thus preventing sore neck or back and it features a firm, flat front cushion which keeps your baby from rolling away. However, not all pillow models come with the complete set of features, so you may want to take a look at several reviews to see which one fits best for you.