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The Physical and Psychological Impact of Breastfeeding on Mothers and Infants

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The Physical and Psychological Impact of Breastfeeding on Mothers and Infants Although breastfeeding is older than civilization itself, it is very much a delicate topic in this country. We often hear magazines, news anchors, medical professionals, and all kinds of people comment on how much better breastfeeding is for an infant’s immune system, but these same people turn around and run breastfeeding through the gauntlet of public opinion and societal norms. It is common for mothers who bottle feed to be shamed while mothers who breastfeed are shamed for when and how they choose to do it (Jansen and de Worth, 2008). Such a normal, necessary thing, but our society is still fiercely debating about appropriateness of public breastfeeding, the superiority of it compared to bottle feeding and the tangible, provable impacts of it on child development. The way our society views breastfeeding is directly reflective of the psychology of America and often factors into whether a woman decides to breastfeed. Unfortunately, this psychology also results in ignorance about the true, full scope of breastfeeding benefits and how those benefits extend beyond just improved immune systems for the infants and accelerated loss of baby weight for the moms. Breastfeeding has a broad impact on the physical and mental/emotional development of both babies and nursing mothers.
The impact of breastfeeding on physical development covers a wide range of effects, with the most commonly known physical effect happening with the baby’s immune system. This was always a generally known fact, but the effect of social media has resulted in all types of up close and personal examples that are often a response to the criticism that breastfeeding mothers (many who juggle work in addition to baby duties) often face. One example that comes to mind is a

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