Wisdom and Births

There were plenty of leaking breasts, milk-drunk babies, and personal testimonies, but unfortunately there wasn't enough information. Click to watch the trailer! Like many birth and breastfeeding professionals, I've waited months for the newest documentary by Rikki Lake and Abby Epstein (and Dana Ben-Ari), the directors of the excellent birth documentary The Business of Being Born , and was hoping it would be just as insightful, empowering, and informative... in some ways it was, but overall I was disappointed with the lack of information. Beginning with the early breastfeeding experiences of various mothers, we continue through the first months and onto the first year with a diverse group of parents, couples, and babies. We are witness to the first latch, numerous breastfeeding and pumping sessions, tandem nursings, and preemie supplementation. We hear about a mother's experience with induced lactation, the changing sexuality of the breasts for one father, and from many g...

Breastfeeding truly is the best feeding! And if you needed any more reason to think so, here are some wonderful research-based and perhaps less well-known reasons to breastfeed!! If you have other ideas please share them in the comments below!!   1. Breastfeeding can decrease your risk of breast cancer.   This is a BIG one that I think we need to talk about more!  Preventing breast cancer is better than having to treat it!! A large meta-analysis of 47 epidemiological studies from 30 countries found a 4.3% (95% CI 2.9-5.8) decreased risk of breast cancer for every 12 months of breastfeeding.  Breastfeeding two children for two years each could conceivably reduce your risk of breast cancer by over 17%. [ PubMed ] (1) 2. And Ovarian Cancer.   A meta-analysis found that the risk of epithelial ovarian cancer decreased 8% for every 5-month increase in the duration of breastfeeding (RR: 0.92; 95% CI: 0.90, 0.95). [ PubMed ] (2) 3. Breastfeeding will save you ov...