Nursing Literature Review: Topic: Breastfeeding - Essay Example

It helps prevent the occurrence of certain types of cancer. Women who do not have any serious health problems should feed their infants breast milk for a minimum of first six months of the child's life. 2. Babies that are breastfed have a lower immortality rate during their first year. According to the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF about 1.5 million infants die each year because they were not breastfed by their mothers. Even more millions of them suffer from infectious illnesses and are malnourished and are never able to reach their full potential because they were instead bottle-fed.

(Breastfeeding Online, 2003-08) 4. Recent research explains that breast milk contains certain essential fatty acids which are the building blocks towards an infant's brain development. Two specific fatty acids that breast milk contains are known as DHA and AA help augment their cognitive skills. 1. Many mothers achieve emotional comfort from breastfeeding their child because of the intimate relationship that she creates out of this interaction with the baby and the satisfaction you receive from nourishing your own child. 2. Women who aggressively and consistently use drugs or have high alcohol intake, or have some sort of addiction to dangerous medicines, should not to breastfeed.

Some mood stabilizers and migraine medicines can also pass through the breast milk and cause harm to the infant.3. Women who also have certain chronic diseases should be advised not to breastfeed, or to take certain precautions to make sure that they are healthy while they are breastfeeding. For example, if a woman has diabetes, she should eat more food than her normal intake while she breastfeeds, so that she can prevent her blood pressure from dropping. 4. Women who have undergone breast surgery in the past might face some difficulties in breastfeeding.

Although these symptoms may not seem normal, engorgement, and hardening of the breasts or better known as breast abscess, fever, use of pain killers or antibiotics should not be the reasons to stop breastfeeding. If under any circumstances a woman stops breastfeeding before the infant turns a year old, then sit is best to feed the infant iron-fortified formula which is available commercially. it is also advisable not to give the child cow's milk before he or she turns one. Tips for BreastfeedingIt is very important and advisable for a mother to consult the doctor before taking any sort of medication, prescribed or non-prescribed.

There are medicines available for certain symptoms or problems that are safe to take while breastfeeding. If a mother is consistently losing