Pros and cons of breastfeeding and not breastfeeding?

Question

What are the goods and the bads of both. Can you do both?

Answer 1

For Mom:
Pros
Breastfeeding soon after delivery helps minimize bleeding.
Breastfeeding helps the uterus return to its pre-pregnancy size more quickly.
Breastfeeding is more convenient than bottle-feeding. (You don't have to carry around a load of bottle parts and formula, and milk is always at feeding temperature.)
Breastfeeding is less expensive than formula-feeding.
Breastfeeding helps mom return to pre-pregnancy weight more quickly.
Breastfeeding helps develop a closeness between mom and baby.
Cons
Breastfeeding ties you to the baby 24/7 and/or dad can't ever feed the baby. (These are the reasons I hear most often, but they aren't necessarily accurate. If you own a pump and a couple of bottles, there's no reason the baby can't be bottle-fed breast milk occasionally.)
Breastfeeding may be frustrating if the baby doesn't catch on right away.
Breastfeeding may be painful for the first week or two.
Engorgement
Sore, cracked nipples - This shouldn't happen if the baby is latched on properly. See here for instruction in how to latch baby on correctly.
Clogged milk ducts - This is uncommon with a properly latched-on baby, as well.
Slight possibility of breast infection - Again, if everything is done properly, this is not common.


For Baby:
Pros
The antibodies in breastmilk help babies fight infection.
Colostrum (pre-milk substance) is an ideal first food, higher in protein and minerals and lower in fats and carbohydrates than breastmilk.
Breastmilk helps safeguard against the development of allergies (and MANY other medical issues).
Breastmilk is easily digested.
Breastmilk changes to fit the changing needs of a growing baby. (Mother's milk for preemies is even different than mother's milk for a full-term baby.)
Breastfeeding helps develop a closeness between mom and baby.
Cons
NONE

Answer 2

Breastfeeding is the best of the best for your baby. It helps you lose weight. It helps you bond with your baby and it costs nothing! You don't have to sterilize anything AND you don't have to burp the baby as often, because there's no wind in your breasts. The cons are that sometimes it can be painfull and if you're not around you have to express the milk for the baby which can be a pain. You also keep your huge boobs for aslong as you breastfeed. This can be a pro or a con depending on yourself! My advice is to atleast try breastfeeding. If you don't like it, don't keep it up. Good luck.

Answer 3

I personally chose to breastfeed for one reason only - I could. We have these things hanging off our chests for a reason and I feel blessed that I had the chance to use them. But, if you need more reasons, check out the link.
There are also many reasons that people have trouble breastfeeding but none that I would consider a con. All obstacles are temporary and easy to overcome as long as the mother has lots of support and seeks out the right information.
Can you do both? I'm not sure what you mean here - can you breastfeed and supplement with formula? Yes, you can.
Can you breastfeed and switch to formula? Yes, you can.
Would I advise it? No, I would not. But you are asking for my opinion, not my advice - you must decide for yourself.
I hope you breastfeed - I'm sure you won't regret it.

Answer 4

I think tigergirl summed it all up. I will say that you should do it! My daughter is very healthy and I controlled what she ate. Not the chemicals they produce and try to pass off as breast milk! Congrats to you if you breastfeed! My 3 year old is healthy and smarter than her class mates in preschool. Also slept all night from when she was born. Woke up at 500 am and went back to sleep till 930-1000am. During the day was perfect mild tempered was on a regular schedule within a week from being home from hosp. You can do both, but I chose to make sure my baby had 100% nutrition from mommy. Good Luck!

Answer 5

Breastfeeding has all the pros - it's natural and healthy both for mom and baby, it's convenient, comfortable, you get to cosy up with your baby as no other can - you should breastfeed as long as you can. It's a bummer to switch to formula - it's really expensive, actually, and a lot of work because you have to be so very careful with sterilizing. Doing both doesn't work so great.

Answer 6

There are tons of pros for breastfeeding your newborn child. It's nutritional, healthy and natural to breastfeed. It helps you lose the baby weight, it passes on healthy antibodies from you to your child and it helps their brainpower. There's actually plenty of research out there that shows that babies who were breastfed are smarter and healthier than those who weren't.

While it is the healthiest, safest choice for your child and ultimately for you, if you choose to you may do both! I breastfed and supplemented with formula. My child was hungier than what I could provide with breastmilk and my schedule at work made it incredibly hard to pump. Unfortunately, because I supplemented breastmilk with formula, I eventually stopped making more breastmilk so I stopped breastfeeding when my baby was 3 mos.

I also got stuck with plenty of baby weight! My doctor said that even though my child had only been breastfed for three months I couldn't really do anything about getting more breastmilk. For my second child, I only had 3 weeks worth of breastmilk. I just stopped making milk, that really upset me. However, not everything was negative.

My kids are healthy preschoolers now...no terrible illnesses. They are normal kids. They are incredibly intelligent, bright and bilingual! So, to answer your question, for some moms, supplementing breastmilk with formula helps the schedule or even comes in handy when your body can't make breastmilk. While breastfeeding is the optimal choice, formula may be the only choice if you can't breastfeed. Also, formula helps dad bond with baby!

Answer 7

Breastfeeding is a tremendous pressure on a new mother.
The advantages are there from a health standpoint - but many mothers simply do not have the milk enough to sustain a child.

Pro - cost, health(?), do not have to spend on formula, do not need to heat bottles,

Con- no sleep, effort needed to allow Father to assist even, trama from separation anxiety, feeding is associated with love, (Love = food), leaking breasts, how do you get your sex life back when you are still thinking of yourself as a feeding mother?


Do not feel guilt either path.

Answer 8

Breast Feeding is cheaper , better for the babys devolpment. THe only negative is investing the time to do it for some women is to hard and the "sensation" is to much

Formula is expense and harder on the kids digestive system. Only positive is anyone can feed your kid with formula.

Answer 9

Pros:
Good for your child
Good for long term health
Better brain growth
better immune system
Less costly
Stronger bond between mother and child

Cons:
Ties you down
Father sometimes feels neglected or left out
Smaller weight
Hard to wean
More frequent feedings

Answer 10

Ditto to tigergirl's answer.

I breastfed my daughter till she was 15m old. and I pumped and stored breast milk so that my husband could feed her as well.

Good Luck :-)