Did you know that breastfeeding your child can make you job as a mom a lot easier? Here is how.
Every time you nurse your baby, your body releases two hormones: prolactin and oxytocin. These hormones enter your blood stream and have some wonderful affects. They begin to form an intuitive bond with your baby, allowing you the two of you to be in synch with one another. Your breastmilk will change in concentration, amount and composition to meet your baby’s exact needs according to age, season and even preferences.
These hormones also create an actual physical sense of calm and confidence in you that helps you keep up with the task of taking care of another demanding, but cute, human being.
Another way that breastfeeding makes mothering easier is in its practical nature. Breastmilk is always readily available, always at the right temperature and never needs extra gear at feeding time, unless you want a coverup. There is no formula to mix or heat or cool. Direct from the source, it never spoils, and you never have to run out in the middle of the night to pick it up from the drugstore.
Breastfeeding can be one step on the road to attachment parenting. And attachment parenting has been shown in studies to actually make it easier to discipline as children get older. Researchers believe that breastfeeding and other attachment parenting practices help moms develop more of an understanding and sensitivity to their child’s needs and gives them better tools to discipline. As a mom of a toddler (and two older children) I can vouch for the fact that when I help my youngest express his frustration or anticipate his triggers for anger and help him, then we avoid tantrums. Difficult discipline situations usually occur, with any of my children, when I distantly approach the situation with a trial and error technique instead of relying on our parent-child bond. And with three kids, I’ll take the easy route as much as I can.
You can read more blog posts by Mary Ann Romans here!
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