Breast Feeding

As more women enter the workforce, the question of whether or not to breast feed becomes a decision of great importance. This paper will examine studies dealing with the effect of breast feeding on infant nutrition and development, as compared to the effect of bottle feeding. Breast feeding has gone in and out of style throughout the years, but as research continues, its use has been proven to be overall physically and cognitively beneficial, and its positive effect on health cannot be ignored.

Breast feeding begins in a hospital setting. Up until 75 years ago all infants had to be breast fed. Rosenblith (1992) points out that breast feeding "requires frequent interactions; a baby nursed on demand will nurse every two to three hours. . . among upper classes in Western cultures, women called 'wet nurses' often had been hired to nurse babies and thus relieve the mother of the chore of nursing (p. 167).

Epidemiological studies have shown that breast feeding provides significant advantages with regard to general health, growth, and development. In addition, breast feeding also decreases the risk for many diseases.

"Research in the United States, Canada, Europe, and other developed countries, among predominantly middle-class populations, provides strong evidence that human milk feeding decreases the incidence and/or severity of diarrhea, lower respiratory infection, otitis media, bactermia, bacterial meningitis, botulism, urinary tract infection,

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rs were significantly better educated and less likely to smoke (Ball and White, 1999, p. 876), confirming what many others had already noted. The findings are definitely indicative of the tangible physical benefits associated with breast feeding. However, some issues are raised by the research. The findings do not include significant indicators for all the illnesses. Rather lower respiratory tract illness is found to not have a significant association with breast feeding. Perhaps, this could be said of many other illnesses. Perhaps, bottle fed infants would express greater immunity to some of these. More research studying the correlations between various other diseases and breast feeding and bottle feeding will shed light on these questions. In addition, studying the effect of confounders such as amount of contact with medical staff, health-seeking behavior, and referral patterns may reveal additional correlations. For instance, those with a greater-than-average amount of interaction with medical staff will have more opportunity to ask questions and may be more knowledgeable about health and appropriate procedures as a result than those who do not interact with health professionals frequently. Similarly those who are le

Category: Medical - B