Happy Breastfeeding

Project 3: Get to the Point

Happy Breastfeeding

by Dewi Erita

We are all students and workers are going to be parents, right?

Would you like to have a baby in the future?

Have you ever thought, is it important to feed your baby?

It is never too early to start thinking about how you are going to feed your baby. Today, I am going to talk about breastfeeding. Breastfeeding is usually defined as a natural way to feed baby with breast milk. My aim is to share the advantages concerning breastfeeding. I believe that breastfeeding is essential for everyone, but there is not official school yet for common people which teach about this except health or medical school.

To begin, I would like to explain three advantages of breastfeeding. Firstly, breastfeeding save money. It eliminates the expense of infant formula (UNICEF, 1999). If we use infant formula, we have to buy it regularly at least one box every week. One year has 52 weeks and two years has 104 weeks. Can you imagine, how much does it take our budget? In contrast, breastfed babies do not need to buy anything. The important thing to do is mother should eat more food and drink more water for keeping breastmilk produced. Moreover, do not ever think mother will have obesity because of that. Anyfood that mother eat will become breast milk and calories for keeping breasfeeding ongoing. After several months, breastfeeding activity routinely will shape mother’s body back to normal.

Secondly, breastfeeding protect baby from illness. Breast milk is a living fluid containing antibodies to protect baby from infection and disease (RCH Team, 2013). The cells, hormones, and antibodies in breast milk protect babies from illness. This protection is unique. Formula cannot match the chemical makeup of human breast milk. Formula-fed babies also have higher risks of asthma, obesity, diabetes, leukemia, and respiratory infections (Women’s Health Team, 2011). In contrast, breastfed babies are rarely sick, which can lower health care costs.

Thirdly, breastfeeding is easy. At the first time, breastfeeding may take little more effort than formula feeding. By the time, it can make life easier after mother and baby used to do it routinely (Women’s Health Team, 2011). Mother can give breast milk everytime and everywhere without difficult preparation. In the commuter line station, we can find lactation room. Those room are small and comfort to stay while mother breastfeed baby. In contrast, if we use formula milk, we have to buy it, wash the bottle, boil it, take it wherever we go with the baby.

To conclude, breastmilk is like new vaccine that could prevent more than one million child deaths a year. Breastfeeding is cheap, safe, and easy. Breastfeeding is health investment. We already have that new vaccine. It is breastmilk (Roesli, 2010).

Depok, August 2^nd 2017

(This draft has been presented in UI Toastmasters Club regular meeting on Wednesday, August 2^nd, 2017)

References

RCH Team, 2013. Breastfeeding.

Roesli, U., 2010. Prevention & Intervention in Improving The National Nutrition Status in Indonesia.

UNICEF, 1999. Breastfeeding: Foundation for a Healthy Future.

Women’s Health Team, 2011. Your Guide to Breastfeeding.