Breastfeeding

How to feed your new baby is an important decision. As a mother, you must choose between exclusive breastfeeding, formula feeding, or a combination of the two. There are many factors that may cause you to choose a particular method of feeding including your personal feelings and knowledge, opinions of your friends and relatives, or recommendations from medical staff and doctors. We will partner with you and help guide you to the best choice for you.

Breastfeeding has been shown to have numerous benefits for both mothers and their babies and is the preferred method of feeding during the first six months of life. Benefits for babies include: improved stomach movement; decreased respiratory and gastrointestinal infections; decreased allergies; and decreased chronic diseases such as coronary heart disease, diabetes, and obesity. Mothers benefit from increased feeling of closeness to your baby, decreased bleeding after delivery, faster weight loss, decreased breast cancer, and decrease stress levels during breastfeeding. Families benefit from the money saved by not having to buy formula!

If by choice or by medical staff recommendations you supplement your babies breastfed diet with formula, many (but not all) of the benefits of the breast milk remain.

As you can see, this could be a lot to think about after just having a new baby. Therefore, we encourage expectant mothers and fathers to make a prenatal appointment to discuss feeding and other topics before the big day.