Baby Changing & Nappies

Breastfeeding is the process of a woman feeding an infant or young child with milk from her breasts. Babies have a sucking reflex that enables them to suck and swallow milk. more...

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Also important in the process is a successful latch, a normal frenulum, and a milk supply. For the equivalent in other mammals, see suckling.

Experimental evidence suggests that except for a few important exceptions (see exceptions below) human breast milk provides the optimal nutrition source for human infants, but disagreement remains between experts regarding the optimal duration of breastfeeding to realize the benefits or the harm in using substitutes. Breastfeeding may occur between the infant and its own mother, or another lactating female. Breastmilk substitutes are available for mothers or families who cannot or prefer not to breastfeed their children. Examples of accepted alternatives to breastfeeding include feeding the infant expressed breast milk from its own mother, from another lactating female, pasteurized donor human milk, or commercially available infant formulas. There are conflicting studies concerning the equivalence between available breastmilk substitutes. In both term and preterm infants, the use of commercial breastmilk substitutes have been proven safe and effective as a nutrition source but inferior to breastfeeding. Donor breastmilk handling processes have been suspected in the proven reduction of effectiveness in pasteurized donor human milk.

Many governmental strategies and international initiatives have promoted breastfeeding as the best method of feeding a child in his or her first year and beyond, as does the World Health Organization (WHO), the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), and many others.

Beginning lactation

Throughout the last two trimesters of pregnancy a woman's body produces hormones which stimulate the growth of the milk duct system in the breasts:

Progesterone -- influences the growth in size of alveoli and lobes. Progesterone levels drop along with oestrogen levels after birth, triggering the onset of copious milk secretion ; Estrogen -- stimulates the ductule system to grow and become specific. Estrogen levels drop at delivery and remain low for the first several months of breastfeeding. (This is also why it is recommended that breastfeeding mothers avoid oestrogen-based birth control methods while they are planning to breastfeed. A spike in estrogen levels compromises a mother's milk supply level.); Follicle stimulating hormone (FSH); Luteinizing hormone (LH); Prolactin -- contributes to the accelerated growth of the alveoli during pregnancy ; Oxytocin -- contracts the smooth muscle of the uterus during birth, after birth, and during orgasm. After birth, oxytocin contracts the smooth muscle layer of band-like cells surrounding the alveoli to squeeze the newly-produced milk into the duct system. Oxytocin is necessary for a let-down, or milk ejection reflex, to occur ; Human placental lactogen (HPL) -- released in large amounts by the placenta during pregnancy (beginning in the second month); appears to be instrumental in breast, nipple, and areola growth before birth ;

Read more at Wikipedia.org