Friends have you noticed that though there is so much of encouragement towards breastfeeding, you rarely get to see women practicing it nowadays.... everyone is busy bottle feeding their kids with formula. Though there is enough evidence of the benefits of breastfeeding for the child as well as the mother and enough documentation of the ill-effects of bottle feeding formula yet women knowingly do the wrong thing for their babies?????

I for one have experienced both the situations.

For my 1st child I tried breastfeeding but as expected the beginning few days are difficulty in many ways- new mom with tiny baby at hand, trauma of child birth, the usually initiation of lactation difficulty, etc, and I gave up breastfeeding in a month s time and resorted to bottle feeding with formula (but I still feel guilty of depriving my 1st born of the unlimited benefits of Breast milk- giving her my antibodies so that she can fight effectively against common illnesses, low risk for asthma, low risk for obesity, diabetes...)

With my 2nd baby I was determined to breastfeed come what may (!). And I did stick to that promise. But guys it was not an easy task!!!! NO SIR NOT AT ALL....

Breast feeding though a natural process has its own share of hiccups- it takes a minimum of 1-2 days to almost 10-15 days for one to properly start producing milk, during this period you see your tiny baby trying relentlessly to fill its tummy by constantly suckling, crying, not sleeping, etc. all this can disgust you and you can easily move to bottle feeding; then there is out of the world pain discomfort due to nipple cracking, milk let down, engorgement, etc. this can further more discourage you.

But believe me once you get past these initial hurdles there is nothing like breast feeding as it is clean, safe, immediate, convenient, healthy, wholesome,….

With my 1st born there was this huge set of bottles, formula containers, hot water to be carried everywhere. Then the washing sterilization of bottles; disturbed night sleep for both the child and me as I had to prepare the feed the child had to wait and then there was this spending good amount of funds on formula, bottles...

But now with my 2nd child once I got past those difficult initial 3 months I find that my child and I are in a very comfortable and happy situation with breastfeeding. Whenever the child demands he gets his feed, when he is cranky he calms down with feeding, when he is sleepy he easily drifts into sleep with feeding. In the night I don’t even have to sit up to feed, while lying down he takes his feed and drifts of into sleep and I also fall back into sleep right away, which helps both of us get enough sleep. Not to mention he is healthy, happy and falls less ill. More over now if I plan to go out I can just pick him up and leave with an extra set for change and some wipes. You know how convenient it is to breast feed babies in public places nowadays! Every big market, shop, mall has a secluded place or a designated place for women with little babies and all of us have cars so we can even feeds babies on way to our destination due to which the child remains calm for at least 2hrs.

Hence, my friends I urge you to practice breast feeding your baby for the 1^st year of his/her life by this was you would have given the most precious gift ‘A Healthy Start To Life’ to your child.

PS: I am open to helping, guiding, sharing my experience knowledge, so please feel free to ask.