No mother should ever be made to feel as though she is not doing enough for her baby if she chooses not to breastfeed. This is a highly personal choice and many women will find that it can be painful, difficult, or upsetting. Others might be physically unable to breastfeed, or may be on medication. There are plenty of highly successful, healthy adults who were once young children that didn’t get breastfed!
Parenting is different for everyone. The only rule is don’t judge anyone else for their parenting style.
But, with that being said, the most common advice for most new Mothers, is that breastfeeding is the preference. If you have the option to do both, then this is the healthiest choice.
There are many reasons for this, and those go beyond the nutritional benefits that the baby will enjoy. Read on and we’ll look at 20 compelling reasons to breastfeed.
1. It’s Bioavailable Nutrition
Bioavailability refers to how easy it is for us to extract and use nutrients from the foods that we consume. While two different consumables might have the same content of amino acids, minerals, or anything else; the reality is that we might get more or less benefit from each depending on how easily we can use those nutrients.
The most bioavailable sources of nutrients are almost always those that are available naturally as a part of our diet. The reason for this is that the human body evolved consuming those foods and thus adapted in order to be able to make the best use of them. Eat an apple for instance and you’ll find it easier to absorb the same amount of vitamin C, as compared with a vitamin tablet.
Often this comes down to the other nutrients that are in the food alongside the key nutrient. Breast milk works in a similar way – but to a much higher extent.
