Two days ago we told you that World Breastfeeding Week kicked off with the motto "Breastfeeding and working: let's make it possible!". For this reason, today we want to give you a recommendation related to breastfeeding and work, the one related to weaning.
There are many women who start breastfeeding with their babies knowing that it has an expiration date: "Until you start working", that in Spain there are 16 weeks of leave that sometimes extend with holidays and days of breastfeeding and that in other countries It is even less. Obviously, we will not judge the decision of these mothers, but thinking about the baby is not recommended And now we will explain why.
Because breastfeeding is not just food, it is a mode of relationship
From the moment the baby is born and puts himself on his mother's chest, lying on her, they start a contact, affection and food relationship that reaches its maximum expression when the baby is taken to the breast and begins to soothe her thirst for food and contact with her.
From that moment, when he feels that he is hungry, he will ask for a breast to appease her. When you feel fear, you will be asked to calm down. When you are sleepy, you will be asked to fall asleep. When he is nervous, he will ask for a chest to calm down. Why the chest is more than food, is hugging mom and hugging you, is feeling her breath, hearing her heart beating again, like when she was in the womb, is smelling her skin again and feeling her warmth, and all that, added to the food that she offers, makes you feel safer than anywhere else.
And what happens when the mother starts working? Well, that so close and dependent relationship of the baby towards the mother (because it is still only 16 weeks), lasting 24 hours a day, is suddenly broken by the absence of mom for a few hours. Without knowing why, the baby is left without its mother for a time that can be relatively short (if they are few hours) or relatively long (if it is full-time), but whose perception in the baby is unknown. Since they don't control time, since they don't have that notion, those hours may seem like minutes, or it may seem like days. And considering that there is a misunderstanding factor, it is more plausible to think that mom's absence is longer than she really is.
Not being her, at best it will be dad. He knows him, knows his arms, his smell and his presence and will be more or less happy with him (more if he has spent enough time with him, less if little has happened). He will surely cry looking for mom, he will feel the loss, but at least he has someone there. Perhaps it is not him, perhaps it is the grandmother, or another relative, who will take care of him, will give him all the affection and will cover his needs as best he can, but he will not be a mother, nor will he be a father. And babies always look for the person who has spent the most time with them, which in most cases is mom.
When Mom returns, everything returns to its place. Mom holds him back in her arms and the baby can decrease her stress level and alert to the starting point (if newborns already suffer with separation, at 16 weeks the stress may be greater). And this is where the difference is made: does mom breastfeed as she has always done so far or does mom give a bottle or food because he has chosen to wean him?
If you breastfeed as usual, the baby is reconciled in some way with mom. It's a "well, okay, you've left me alone, but I see you're still here and that you keep taking care of me as usual." If you do not give it, if you offer something else, the baby suffers a second break: "You have not only left me alone, but now, in addition, you no longer breastfeed me as you always did."
Obviously, the baby does not make this reflection, he is not able, but yes feel the loss, the separation of the mother and the separation now of the way in which both related normally.
Therefore, when a woman goes to work and leaves her baby with another person, it is better to continue breastfeeding. So you will not live two losses, but only one, which is not small, because there is a lot you lose for how small it is, because of the lack of work and family reconciliation (you know, those policies where Babies are the least important).
Because breastfeeding is not just food, it is a daily vaccine
Many parents often ask, when their children start catching viruses, colds and other diseases, what they can do to increase their children's defenses. The answer is quick, because there are only two things that can strengthen the immune system: do not go over hygiene, which is recommended have a dog, Y give breast milk. The other tips are not so much to increase defenses but rather to prevent them from decreasing: being happy, playing sports, eating well, etc.
Well, knowing that breastfeeding is a way to provide defenses to the baby, as if it were a daily vaccine, the ideal is do not wean at four months, but continue breastfeeding until at least six, until the year if possible and until two years as an ideal time. And especially if during that time you will start to be in contact with other children, whether at home, in the street, in the nursery, etc. Children are the best catching viruses and transmitting them, so it is worth it for our baby to be breastfeeding, because although he will get sick equally, the chances of getting sick less, of being cured before and that the diseases are less severe are greater.
How to do it then?
In the next few days we talk about it, but as a conclusion and summary, the ideal is to continue breastfeeding the baby even if you are going to miss several hours. For this, what is usually done is to breastfeed before you leave (so it takes longer to get hungry again and ask for food from the caregiver and to empty the breasts), pump milk at the workplace to avoid engorgements and decrease the risk of mastitis and then, upon arriving home, recover the time lost with the baby and breastfeed and just breast, as long as he wants and needs, to reconcile with you and you with him. Even if he is already months old and is eating other things, give him all the chest he wants.
Photos | iStock
In Babies and more | Pregnancy, breastfeeding and work, Do not give up breastfeeding for work reasons, How to do manual breast milk extraction (video)
