Breast is Best
...c benefit is that parents don’t have to worry about paying formula prices the first year of their infant’s life, if they are breastfeeding the child. (Weimer, p.24) The cost for a one-year supply of formula now exceeds $900 in most areas of the country. (Lazarov and Evans p.17) Many studies support the theory that breastfeeding provides greater nutritional benefits for an infant’s first year of life. The protein level is very high, and the minerals and vitamins are easily absorbed, generating much growth of the child. (Lazarov and Evans p.16) The iron in breast milk is completely absorbed, while only 10% in formula crosses the bloodstream. (Lazarov and Evans p.16) Cholesterol and decosaxhexaehoic are two fats which play a huge role in the development of the central nervous system. (Lazarov and Evans p.16) All of these studies show that breastfeeding contributes to a healthy start for an infant. WIC Program for Mothers The WIC is a special supplemental Nutrition Program for women, infants, and children that provide them with nutrient-dense food packages, nutritional counseling, and links to medical and social services. (Chatterji and Brooks-Gunn 1324) WIC spent over 50 million dollars in 1998 to encourage participants to try breastfeeding their infants. (Lazarov and Evans p. 16) Numerous studies say that WIC participation is associated with better birth outcomes, but not many benefits after the newborn stage. (Chatterji and Brooks-Gunn 1324) Most of the mothers that participated in the WIC program breastfed their infants at least until 18 weeks. Many of these mothers may have stopped after this period. The goal of the WIC program is for the mothers to participate in the process, whether they end up breastfeeding or bottle feeding, but knowing the benefits of breastfeeding. Many studies that were conducted showed that it was very difficult to breastfeed if you were a working mother because many workplaces don’t give women many days off, or provide them with the right facilities at work to pump milk. Most states require mothers to come back to work within the first couple weeks. (Haider, Jacknowitz, and Robert p.481) Some may breastfeed until they have to go back to work, and some may know that they are going to go back to work and not breastfeed at all. Women of poverty in other countries don’t leave their baby to go to work, they breast feed their child in most cases, because they are not going to find a good enough job that is going to be able to pay the person watching their child and have money left over. Breastfeeding their infant is what their culture accepts and they can't afford to buy formula for their infant, even if they wanted to bottle feed. They don’t have WIC where the government provides for their children so that is not an option for them. Each year thousands of women become infected with HIV, and then transmit the disease from mother to child, either during pregnancy, delivery, or breastfeeding. (Ross and Labbok p.1174) In this case a woman is informed that they should avoid breastfeeding their child, because the drugs they take should take care of the pregnancy and delivery. Breast milk brings up risks of transmission from the mother to the infant. If the infant is the “high risk of infant mortality” category, the mother is told that breastfeeding is the safer route for the child. (Ross and Labbok p.1174) To help prevent transmission of HIV to the infant through breastfeeding, the treating of the breasts and the use of prophylactic antiretroviral therapy to the infant or the mother is recommended. (Ross and Labbok p. 1175) The study they conducted in order to find research on this subject was very complex. They took HIV-infected mothers and put them up in different scenarios in order to get results. The results concluded that mothers whom are HIV-infected should use the prophylactic antiretroviral drugs that are given to the mother and infant during the breastfeeding to prevent the baby from getting HIV. Women living in different countries that are HIV infected should breastfeed their infants, because they were mixing their formula with contaminated water, which lead to millions of infant illnesses and deaths. ( Baker p.1) Most of these cases occur in very poor countries, but an HIV infected mother should get the prophylactic antiretroviral drug and breastfeed for the best results for your infant. Study on Low-income Mothers One study showed the reasons why young mothers from low-income areas are least likely to breastfeed. The main focus groups were 15 health professionals and 11 young first time mothers. (Community Practitioner. 2003) The health professionals talked to the young mothers about what they thought was best for their babies. They agreed that the “Breast was Best” but had many reasons why this may not always be the way that women will go. This study was to investigate which factors influence young women’s infant feeding decisions in order to make recommendations for healthcare practice. (Community Practitioner. 2003) The focus groups were to give the health professionals more knowledge about this subject and give the young mothers a chance to talk about their beliefs on whether breastfeeding is best. Open-ended methods of data collection and analysis were chosen to explore young women’s experiences of infant feeding. Their data was collected and analyzed using interpretative phenomenological analysis. (Community Practitioner 2003) They were going to interview the young mothers using antenatal interviewing. The interviews were to have questions that were open-ended and to make sure that all themes were covered. The data were analyzed according to the “Exploring and Theorizing Shared Experiences” method, in which the initial analysis of shared experiences across the sample formed the basis of a more detailed analysis of individual experiences of the phenomenon. (Community Practitioner 2003) This method states that the interviews will be based on the young mothers experiences with breastfeeding, or their experiences with bottle-feeding and what their opinions are based on their experiences. The Health Professionals perceptions on low-income mothers and how they chose to feed their infants was broken into many different groups of women. The health professionals had different opinions comparing South Asian mothers to white mothers. The south Asian mothers were known to breastfeed their children, and not even think twice about it. They just thought of it as the normal and expected thing to do. They thought of milk coming of the breast as “magical.” (Community Practitioner 2003) The white women are more likely to put their lives and the things that they have going on in front of breastfeeding their infants. They think about their jobs, the convenience that it’s going to take away from their lives. White women are more likely to bottle feed, so when a white women gets pregnant and asks her friends what they think, they all have bottle fed, and that may have a difference in what they decide. (Community Practitioner 2003) The message is that health professionals believe that low-income mothers jeopardize their child’s health, due to a lack of knowledge and their cultural beliefs and traditions that come before these benefits. (Community Practitioner 2003) The Low-income mothers that did the interviews knew more about the great benefits of breastfeeding than the health professionals gave them credit for. Most of these women just thought that bottle feeding is more convenient. Some with different cultural beliefs breastfed no matter what. That’s what their culture believed was the right thing to do. The participants of this study came to an agreement that as long as their infants looked well fed, they didn’t mind bottle feeding. Some were worried that t...