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July 14, 2019 - Freedomain Radio - Stefan Molyneux
39:46
The Truth About Breastfeeding
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Hi everybody, this is Stefan Molyneux.
This is the truth about breastfeeding.
And please, please, please make it through the presentation.
This is really, really essential information.
And of course, if you know somebody who is big with child or of childbearing age, please forward it to them.
This is stuff that you need to know before you become a mother and father.
Let's do a little bit of background and then we will give you the information that will blow your mind and hopefully So, lactation, as you know, is a secretion of milk from the mammary glands.
It also describes the time period in which the mother lactates to feed her young.
The process occurs in all female mammals, but in humans, it's generally referred to as nursing or breastfeeding.
Now, of course, exclusive breastfeeding refers to the feeding of only breast milk from the breast and no bottle feeding or other liquids or solids with the exception of drops or syrups which have vitamins, minerals, supplements or medicines.
Now, when the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the CDC, weighs in, you know, you might want to pay attention.
They have said, quote, breast milk is widely acknowledged as the most complete form of nutrition for infants with a range of benefits for infants' health, growth, immunity, which we'll get to in a second, and development.
The American Academy of Pediatrics and other organizations such as the American Medical Association and the American Dietetic Association and the World Health Organization all recommend breastfeeding as best for babies.
In addition, the AAP recommends exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months and encourages nursing for at least a year longer if the mother and baby are enjoying it.
Now, of course, with infant formula and other alternatives, breastfeeding is not the only option available, and some women choose to forgo breastfeeding altogether.
Now, in this presentation, we're going to have a look at the history, functions, benefits, attitudes, and prevalence of breastfeeding, as well as some of the alternatives and their effectiveness.
Now, obviously nutrition is the primary function of breast milk, but this is very important.
Because a newborn has no natural immunities of its own, the mother's breast milk provides not only essential nutrients, but a way for the mother to pass on her already developed immunities to her baby.
This is what keeps the germs at bay.
The immune benefits in breast milk come from a substance called secretory Immunoglobulin A, IgA.
It's present in large amounts in the first milk a mother's body produces for her baby called colostrum.
This is the good, keep-you-safe juice that goes straight into the baby and starts building the immune system.
It is still present in mature breast milk, but in lower concentrations.
Now, a woman's breast milk is very specifically tailored to her baby in a way that formula obviously can't be.
Her body responds to the viruses and bacteria that she is exposed to and in turn, her body creates this IgA that's specific to those pathogens.
This protection is then passed on to the baby through breastfeeding.
And this is important. One of the things that doctors have talked about Is these superbugs, right?
These superbugs that are resistant to antibiotics.
And one of the reasons that this is happening is we've got a presentation coming up called The Truth About Daycare, about the degree to which particularly having infants in daycare causes mass illnesses that require these sort of Airstrikes of antibiotics, which, you know, raises resistance of these bugs.
But this is also when you have less breastfeeding, then you have babies more susceptible to infections, which means more antibiotics, which means breeding more superbugs.
So it's really, really quite important for the overall health of the community to focus on providing these kinds of safeties to your baby.
IGA forms a protective layer on the mucous membranes in the baby's intestines, nose, and throat.
Protecting the baby against invading germs.
What happens in the future?
Well, bonding of course is an important function of breastfeeding as well.
Babies that don't experience eye contact, soft voices, skin-on-skin contact often have what is called a failure to thrive, which means that they just kind of get sick and sometimes even die.
Without that kind of contact, we need it as much as we need oxygen, just in a slightly different timeframe.
Skin-to-skin contact is important for the release of hormones such as oxytocin and vasopressin linked to emotional and social bonding.
The beginning of empathy training, of sensitivity to others, of the capacity to focus on win-win negotiations and be a good friend, a future good husband, that lover, Is all rooted in skin-on-skin contact and one of the most beautiful ways to achieve that, of course, is through eye contact and breastfeeding.
Many children who have not had ample physical and emotional attention are at high risk for behavioral, emotional, and social problems as they grow up.
You may feel, if you're a mom, I don't have time to breastfeed or get things done or get back to work or whatever.
You know, so much of life is pay me now or pay me later.
And if you really don't want to have as many troubles with your teenager The important thing is to set the bond, set the contact right up front.
And of course, improve the quality of their infancy.
If they're getting sick less because you're breastfeeding them, then their experience of the world is much better.
And as we've talked about in another presentation that I hope you will check out, The Truth About Circumcision, if you have a boy, let's say, don't let the doctors remove half of his penis skin.
A 2013 study from Brown University using MRI brain imaging shows breastfeeding improves brain development in infants.
Breastfeeding improves brain development in infants.
This hasn't been measured, as far as I know, to a specific IQ gain, but I imagine there is one.
We certainly know that there's a three to five point IQ drop for children who are spanked.
So if you breastfeed and don't spank, your kid is going to, you know, think of it as a massive investment in saving money because, boy, they're sure to get some sort of scholarship rather than having you cough up 25 large a year for them to go to college.
Exclusive breastfeeding for at least three months produced better brain development than a combination of breastfeeding and formula, which itself produced better development than formula alone.
Nature's milk grows your baby's brain and there's no substitute for it.
To deny your baby breast milk, if you are at all physically capable of providing it, is to harm the baby's brain development.
It's to harm the baby's immunosuppressants and immune system early on in life.
It interferes with the quality of the baby's emotional development and so to me it seems like a no-brainer and it certainly was the case with my wife and I but we want to make the case scientifically and not just from my opinion.
Now this extra growth in the brain was most pronounced in the parts of the brain associated with language Emotional function and cognition.
Now, if there are three things that you want your baby's brain to do well, it is not to juggle or do tricks or via fire swallow.
What you want your baby's brain is to develop language because as soon as the baby develops language, you can learn to negotiate, which means that you can find win-win situations to conflicts or solutions to conflicts.
Emotional functioning you want so the kid is not having tantrums and hitting things.
And cognition, right?
The more intelligent your child is, the easier you're going to have, the easier job you're going to have as a parent.
In another study, infants who were breastfed for at least six months scored higher on math, reading, and spelling tests at age 10 than those breastfed for less than six months.
And I'm not a huge fan of public schools to say the least, but one of the reasons that certain poorer sections of society may have problems in school, the kids may have problems in school, is because of lack of empathy, lack of emotional development, cognitive development, language development, and brain functioning.
We'll talk about that in a few minutes.
What's good? For the mom, ooh, the baby vampire diet is what we're going to talk about here.
Suckling of the baby in the hours and days after birth releases oxytocin in the mother as well, therefore she does not have to snort it off the baby's head.
This hormone signals the breast to release milk to the baby as well as producing contracting of the uterus to prevent postpartum bleeding and begin returning the uterus to a pre-pregnancy state.
Internal surgery of some kind.
The return of menstrual periods is delayed as long as the mother breastfeeds exclusively.
Mix it up there. This is important in the conservation of iron in the mother's body and often provides natural spacing of pregnancies.
Production of milk can use between 200 and 500 calories a day on average.
Breastfeeding mothers tend to lose weight more easily after childbirth, so you don't end up with that little post-baby pooch.
Studies have confirmed that non-breastfeeding mothers lose less weight and don't keep it off as well as breastfeeding moms.
A 2002 study published in the British Medical Journal, The Lancet, analyzed individual data from 47 studies in 30 countries, including 50,302 women with breast cancer and almost 100,000 without the disease.
The study found that a woman's risk for breast cancer decreased by 4.3% for every 12 months she breastfed during her lifetime.
The risk also decreased 7% For every child born.
I want to repeat that, this is so important.
A woman's risk for breast cancer decreased by over 4% for every 12 months she breastfed during her lifetime and 7% for every child born.
This is a chilling case of use it or lose it.
A 2002 study published in the American Journal of Epidemiology analyzed 12 case-controlled studies and showed that women who breastfed had a 20% lower risk of developing ovarian cancer than those who did not.
I just think. I mean, we stop smoking, we put sunscreen on because we want to reduce our risk of cancer.
This is a 20% drop in the risk of contracting ovarian cancer.
Why have the kids if you're not going to do everything you can to be around as long as possible?
Mothers who develop gestational diabetes and breastfeed have lower blood sugars after birth than those non-breastfeeding mothers.
Now, what are the concerns?
There are times when a woman should not breastfeed.
What are those? Of course, if you're HIV positive, the virus can be passed to the infant through breast milk.
If the mother has active, untreated tuberculosis, in other words, if she's fallen out of the pages of a Dickens novel, when the mother is receiving chemotherapy for cancer, when the mother is using illegal drugs such as heroin, cocaine, or marijuana, when the mother is taking certain prescription medications, drugs for migraine headaches, Parkinson's disease, or arthritis.
I guess the latter two would be kind of a Christmas miracle.
When the baby has one of a few rare genetic conditions in which the baby cannot digest either the sugars or the proteins in breast milk.
These are obviously pretty rare.
Lack of milk production is also a concern for new mothers.
While breastfeeding is natural, it does not necessarily come naturally.
Well, amen to that. Patients and learning good technique are key factors.
Some mothers with low milk production may be able to solve the problem with the right support.
Currently, there is a growing profession devoted exclusively To helping with breastfeeding issues called lactation consulting.
Fair warning, it is not the boy in his early teens next door, no matter what he says.
Transfer of chemicals through breast milk is definitely a growing concern as well due to the high number of new medications on the market.
Household chemicals that the mother is exposed to may show up in breast milk.
There are more and more studies being conducted on chemicals showing up in harmful levels for the baby.
This list is frequently being revised, so talking to a pediatrician or lactation consultant is the best way To alleviate fears and, you know, especially while you're breastfeeding, it's a good idea in general, especially when you're breastfeeding, you know, try and live as natural as possible.
Shop around the edges of the supermarket and try to have as few packaged goods as possible.
Infant formula, though first developed by Henri Nestlé in the 1860s, infant formula did not become popular until much later, because you have boobs.
During the post-World War II baby boom, the Nestlé Company launched a massive ad campaign to promote their baby formula.
Advertisements often implied that babies needed more than just breast milk for optimal health and nourishment, and they emphasized how closely formula approximated breast milk's chemical composition.
This, I mean, just as a very brief aside, this is something that drives me a little bit nuts about Advertising and advertisers.
It's not just advertising. Remember this thing where it's like you've got to drink eight glasses of water a day?
It turned out to be complete nonsense.
Your body will say, hey, I'm thirsty when it wants something to drink.
There's always this argument that you have to do something.
You've got to go and get some sort of Cleanse by putting tentacles up your butt or something.
You don't need a cleanse.
Your body has already developed its capacity to clean its innards, and it doesn't actually need to be that clean.
You need the bacteria in there anyway.
So there's this idea that somehow we need plus.
We need something else. We need something that billions of years of evolution has left us shy of.
Be very skeptical of those kinds of claims.
Formula and bottles became quite popular at the time because women needed to be able to leave their babies behind to help in the war efforts.
Ah, don't the endless benefits of war just leave you agog?
The baby boomer generation is the first generation to have been bottle-fed on a large scale.
This may have something to do with disco and polyester.
studies are still underway.
Due to metabolic stress experienced, infant formula feeding appears to contribute to the development of several common childhood illnesses, including atrophy, hyperallergy, diabetes, childhood obesity, and other conditions in adult life.
Today, some women choose to use formula so another person can take care of their child, a family member, or child care provider, typically so the mother can return to work sooner.
If you want to have a baby, please try and stay home with the baby.
If you cannot stay home with the baby, postpone having the baby until you can stay home with the baby.
That's it. Though improvements to infant formula continues to be made, no true replacement for breast milk exists.
Don't think I'm part of the patriarchy.
I'm a stay-at-home dad. Although I'm all taps and no plumbing.
My boobs come with no milk.
But... Anyway, formula sales have decreased after World War II due to lower birth rates, and education initiatives that highlighted the benefits are breastfeeding.
To counter this loss in sales, Nestle and other such companies began focusing their marketing campaigns in developing countries.
In the mid-1970s, Nestle's dubious, to say it as nicely as possible, formula marketing practices in South Africa came to light.
It was found that they were sending so-called milk nurses into hospitals, clinics, and private homes to instruct poor women on the use of formula for their babies.
These were women dressed in nurses' uniforms, but very few of them were actually nurses or healthcare professionals.
These South African mothers rarely had access to clean running water, and mixing the formula with contaminated water often led to diarrhea and sometimes the infant's death.
Over time, of course, when you're formula feeding a baby, the mother's breast milk dries up, leaving her no other option but formula.
But due to the high cost, some mothers were watering it down to make it last longer, which led to malnutrition.
In July of 1977, the Infant Formula Action Coalition launched a nationwide boycott of Nestle in the U.S. This boycott soon spread to Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and Europe.
In 1979, the International Baby Food Action Network was formed to help raise awareness of such detrimental practices as supplementary feeding of new babies with formula and the inappropriate promotion of baby formula and to help change attitudes that discourage or inhibit mothers from breastfeeding their babies.
There's profit for evil capitalists in the promotion of this stuff and there is frankly profit in governments to get women Into the workforce, right?
I mean, if a woman's staying at home, you can't tax the woman.
If the woman goes to work, well, you get to tax the baby formula that is sold.
You get to tax the woman who's gone back to work.
You get to often tax the childcare providers that she's paying to take care of her child.
Yay for government, nay for babies and the future of the species.
In 1981, the 34th World Health Assembly adopted Resolution WA-34.22, which includes the International Code of Marketing of Breast Milk Substitutes.
The code dictates who can advise parents on the use of breast milk substitutes, limits who manufacturing companies can distribute information to, and sets forth labeling requirements.
The USA was the only member state to vote against it, only endorsing it in 1994.
Nestle is still in and out of the news and the courts due to violations of the code in various countries around the world.
They have been fined for violating certain aspects of the code, but have not been held directly responsible for any infant deaths.
To be fair, I'm sure lots of people have tried.
In fact, Nestle boycott is ongoing.
Similar to attitudes of the 1500s by the 1950s, the predominant attitude to breastfeeding was that it was something practiced by the uneducated and Breastfeeding was discouraged by medical practitioners and media of the time and was considered old-fashioned and a little disgusting for those who could afford infant formula.
This is the way that society reorganizes itself, right?
So if the higher classes are a little bit more intelligent, then people target them, appeal to their vanity, and then they don't breastfeed their kids, which makes their kids less intelligent.
The young are breastfeeding their kids, the poor are breastfeeding their kids, making them more intelligent.
There's a cycle. It's a cycle of life and intelligence.
You know, like the smarter women are the ones who want to go out to work more, which means that their babies get less cognitive development, which means that it's the shirt sleeves to bow ties to shirt sleeves in three generations.
Letters and editorials to Canadian women's lifestyle magazine Chatelaine from 1945 to as late as 1995...
Those letters regarding breastfeeding were predominantly negative.
I think the technical term was, like, ill.
However, since the middle 1960s, there has also been a steady resurgence in the practice of breastfeeding in Canada and the U.S., especially among more educated and affluent people.
Women. This is, as some thinkers have said, it's the great rediscovery.
You know, like, hey, let's live in a commune and not shower.
Hey, we've got licensed gapies.
It's just stuff we kind of have to keep relearning over and over and over again.
Like, hey, charities should be taken care of by, like, churches and local institutions and people who actually care.
No, let's give it to the government.
Oh, let's bring it back to local charities and institutions.
It's just the great learning we keep having to do over and over again until we get it right.
Breastfeeding trends have seen ups and downs over the last five centuries, but in general, breastfeeding has been on the rise since the mid-1970s.
The CDC collects a comprehensive set of breastfeeding data via the National Immunization Survey in the US. The survey covers three years of children's lives.
The most recent data is for the birth year, 2010.
These surveys showed that for babies born in 2010, 77% of new mothers started breastfeeding at birth.
This included all women who had breastfed any amount and for any length of time, could be a flyby, could be a bungee jump, days, weeks, or months.
For the birth year 2000, that number was 71%.
So, yay moms, keep it going.
This data also tracked breastfeeding of duration and showed that of the initial number, 49% were breastfeeding at 6 months.
Ah, sadly, but only 27% were still breastfeeding at 12 months.
When only looking at women who breastfed exclusively, that number declined significantly.
So, of course, if you are pumping breast milk, hopefully not in an executive-level cubicle, but at home, and then the baby gets the nutritional value, of course, gets the immunosuppressant value, but not quite as much of the sort of skin-on-skin value.
Only 38% of new mothers breastfed exclusively for the first three months, which dropped to 16% for the first six months.
Of those who did not breastfeed exclusively, 24% supplemented infant formula before the baby was two days old.
Before the baby was two days old.
I know it's a struggle.
It was a struggle for us, but it is worth sticking it through.
Of course, you start supplementing infant formula and your breasts say, oh, I guess the baby didn't make it or whatever.
They start to dry up a little. So 24% supplemented infant formula before two days old, 36% before three months old, and 43% before six months old.
Resist, resist, resist. I would argue.
I think the science and data argues.
According to the CDC's most recent breakdown of socio-demographic data for the birth year 2007, neither birth order nor sex showed a pronounced effect on the rate of breastfeeding.
Race is probably the most significant factor in the choice to breastfeed.
So Asians are breastfeeding at 86%, Hispanics or Latinos at 81%, Whites At 78%.
American Indian or Alaskan Natives at 74%.
Native Hawaiians and others, 73%.
And Black or African Americans at 60%.
And boy, you know, I mean, if you want to help give your kids a leg up in life, it would be great if we could get all those numbers to the Asian level.
Women who receive government assistance are less likely to breastfeed than those who do not.
What can I say? Those who receive WIC are 68% eligible but not receiving 78%, not receiving 85%.
The reasons for that, I mean, we could speculate, but those are the facts.
Women who are 20 years old or younger are 19% less likely to breastfeed than women who are 30 years of age and older.
You know, one of the things that is true is that when you're young, you think you know everything, right?
I think it was Mark Twain who had this old saying about, you know, I left home when I was 17 and I came back three years later.
I was amazed at how much my old man had learned in the three years that I'd been away.
When you're young, you think you know a lot.
And when you're older, you realize, like Socrates did, that you're pretty ignorant about most things.
And so you go and find things out.
This is what parenting should always be about.
You know, we upgrade our cell phones and our computers and our cars.
We should continually strive to upgrade our parenting, particularly from how we were parented.
I mean, we wouldn't accept our parents' old computer and try and use it or one of those massive brick-like point of the satellite cell phones from 1982.
And we constantly need to look at the science to upgrade our parenting.
So for the younger people, don't assume that you know.
Always go to look it up.
Married women are 21% more likely to breastfeed than unmarried women.
Yet another example of how marriage is beneficial to children.
Education seems to play a big role as well.
So if you are not a high school graduate, you're at 67%.
If you're a high school graduate, you are at 67%.
If you have some college, you are at 77% breastfeeding, college graduate 88% and so on.
So new moms living in a city outskirts and suburbs come in at 3% above the national percentage while those living in rural areas are 11% below the national percentage for breastfeeding.
What are the common objections to breastfeeding?
Some of the most common reasons for not breastfeeding are discomfort, time issues, latching difficulties, and lack of support.
I don't think mentioned here is the husband wanted to get back in.
It is estimated that more than 95% of women are physically capable of breastfeeding since infant genetic abnormalities and physical abnormalities in the mother occur only in 1-4% of cases.
The three most common reasons for not continuing nursing are, my baby had difficulty nursing, says 31% of women.
It was too hard to get breastfeeding going, 23% of women.
Formula was more convenient, 23% of women.
And there is some lack of support from everyone around the mothers, including doctors, partners, family and friends.
Of course, if you had a mother who formula fed, you know, like most of these mistakes tend to photocopy, And you may feel not too comfortable saying to your mother, well, the formula feeding was bad, and so I'm going to breastfeed.
And the mother says, oh, you know, the formula's fine.
That's what I did. There's nothing wrong with it.
And so it can be a bit conflicty.
But, you know, the star we guide our parenting by is the scientific benefit and best practices for the mental, physical, and emotional health of our children.
Previous generations are upsets, frankly, be damned.
You just do what is best for your kid.
The science and knowledge has advanced.
It is difficult. My wife had significant difficulties.
She, with my encouragement, just powered through and it worked out fine.
Many breastfeeding advocates suggest that lack of support is the greatest contributor to women not initiating or continuing breastfeeding.
And I mean, what do I know?
I'm not an expert in this, but...
I think it's also the woman's choice.
I think it's also the amount of knowledge you get and the amount of commitment that you have to the best interests of your child.
So it's not just a lack of support.
I'm sure that's there as well.
But I would also argue that, you know, women can make that better decision.
Why? What's the problem with breastfeeding?
So, the breastfeeding rate may seem high at 77%, but if you consider that 24% of those women start introducing formula before the infant is two days old, then the percentage of women who actually initiate and breastfeed for three days or more drops to 59%.
Three days after the baby's born, we're down to 59%.
It's not good.
I've got to grow old in a world populated by these people.
Childbirth Connections Listening to Mothers 3 survey for 2012 found that women, on average, appear to be aware of national breastfeeding recommendations, but a gap exists between national standards for hospital breastfeeding support and the hospital practices women experience after birth.
The AAP has two policies which provide guidance to hospitals to implement practices that support breastfeeding and avoid disruptive ones.
Contrary to these guidelines, survey participants who intended to exclusively breastfeed experienced the following.
49% were given free formula samples or offers.
47% were not told about breastfeeding resources in their communities.
Thirty-seven percent of their babies were given pacifiers by the staff.
Thirty-six percent were not shown how to position the baby to limit nipple soreness.
Thirty-five percent of babies did not room in with their mothers while in the hospital.
That was true here. You know, Canada has this socialized health care system, and we had to pay significantly extra for a private room where we could all sleep together.
I mean, we did because that's what we wanted, but it feels like a bit of a farm factory otherwise.
31% were not encouraged to breastfeed on demand.
29% were given formula or water to supplement their mother's breast milk.
And 19% did not receive help to start breastfeeding when they were ready.
And this is all a problem.
This is definitely quite tragic.
I hate to say it, ladies, but you should not be figuring out The value of breastfeeding after you've had the baby.
If memory serves, you have about nine months, hopefully, to prepare for this.
You're probably trying to get pregnant beforehand.
If you're married, hopefully, you've been around for a couple of years talking about this.
You know, you don't try and figure out how to drive the car while you're taking the test.
You do a bit of prep beforehand.
So I think it would be great if people had more support, if women had more support.
But come on. I mean, you know you're going to have a baby and you know that breastfeeding is important.
That's kind of what they're for.
You know, get the guy, give to the baby.
That's what they're for. And so I would say that this is a shame, but I still think that this is something that women can, you know, I don't have enough disrespect for women to say they can't figure this stuff out ahead of time.
As set forth in the international code of marketing of breast milk substitutes, formula companies are not allowed to market directly to consumers.
Instead, they enlist doctors to recommend their products, and most patients trust that the advice from their healthcare providers is given with the patient's best interests in mind.
Yeah. You know, things like ADHD meds, SSRIs of all kinds, would lead me to have some hesitation as to trusting that everything the doctor says has the best interests of children in mind.
My particular opinion, not just my opinion, but do your research.
Formula companies often give hospitals and medical providers free or discounted products, and they use paid lunches and other incentive programs to encourage health workers to recommend their brands.
These companies further garner physicians' goodwill by sponsoring scientific conference and research on infant nutrition.
I mean, of course, I mean, we all know this.
I mean, the people who want to sell you stuff want to sell you stuff, and they're not going to particularly talk about the downside of their products.
I mean, every consumer knows this from about the first time you order something, see monkeys over the internet and get a bunch of algae, right?
We all know this, that the people who try and sell us stuff Have conflicts of interest.
They want to make money. They're going to talk about the downside, right?
I mean, you don't see a bunch of people with no teeth chortling about how great Coca-Cola is.
So, we all know this.
And so, do your research.
Do your research. Do your research. A study published in the journal Pediatrics in 2010 showed that 78% of US hospitals routinely give formula to healthy breastfeeding infants.
Well, they don't if the mom says no.
Many proponents of breastfeeding blame higher formula use rates on the fact that many hospitals also give new moms discharge packs containing formula samples and coupons.
Well, you don't have to use them.
A study published in Obstetrics and Gynecology in February 2000 stated that, quote, exposure to formula promotion increases significantly breastfeeding cessation in the first two weeks.
Also, among women with uncertain goals or breastfeeding goals of 12 weeks or less, exposure to formula promotion results in exclusive, full, and overall breastfeeding duration being shortened.
Well, With these facts, that's not going to happen anymore.
I'm so excited. Since 2000, many hospitals have opted to not hand out formula samples, with 28% being sample-free in 2010.
Unfortunately, there are no more recent large-scale studies on this subject.
The World Health Organization has outlined 10 steps to successful breastfeeding.
These steps are the foundation of the Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative and summarize the maternity practices necessary To support breastfeeding.
And look, I appreciate all of this stuff.
You know, somehow we evolved from single-celled organisms without clusters of people in white coats telling us to put milk in our baby's mouths.
So I am glad that this stuff is all there.
It seems insane that it needs to be, but, you know, use it if you can.
But it really seems a bit of an overcomplicated thing to baby nipple go.
Have a written breastfeeding policy that is routinely communicated to all healthcare staff.
Train all healthcare staff in skills necessary to implement this policy.
Yay! Inform all pregnant women about the benefits and management of breastfeeding.
Should know before you go in, but it's great to know afterwards, I suppose.
Help mothers initiate breastfeeding within half an hour of birth, right, to get that colostrum, right, to get that immunosuppressant milk in there.
Show mothers how to breastfeed and how to maintain lactation, even if they should be separated from their infants.
Give newborn infants no food or drink other than breast milk and lattes, unless medically indicated.
Practice rooming in, that is, allow mothers and infants to remain together 24 hours a day.
Again, I mean, it just doesn't seem strange that we need all this stuff.
I'm glad it's there, but encourage breastfeeding on demand.
Of course, if baby's hungry, give no artificial teats or pacifiers, also called dummies or soothers.
Oh, I thought they were talking about me.
To breastfeeding infants, foster the establishment of breastfeeding support groups and refer mothers to them upon discharge from the hospital or clinic.
So, this is good.
It's a good reminder. You should know this stuff beforehand.
A maternity facility can be designated baby-friendly when it does not accept free or low-cost breast milk substitutes, feeding bottles or teats, and has implemented the previous 10 steps to support successful breastfeeding.
Also not allowed fire-breathing lizards, nunchucks and steak knives.
Because the benefits of breastfeeding are becoming more well-known, new family-friendly facilities called birthing centers have emerged.
Unlike hospitals, birthing centers are more like home environments to allow for a more relaxed pre- and post-birth experience.
Rooming in, sort of staying together, is considered one of the key components for bonding between baby and parents.
This helps the mother and father learn the baby's feeding cues and establish breastfeeding patterns.
Co-sleeping is often encouraged for mother and baby as well.
Co-sleeping is great. I mean, baby's hungry, you can turn and doze and the baby can feed.
It's fantastic. Midwives and lactation consultants are usually on site to answer any questions.
And listen, don't get me wrong.
I mean, I'm not saying it's as easy as falling off a log.
Breastfeeding can be complicated, can be difficult, can be painful.
So, yeah, take the support that you need.
You should have the knowledge before you go in.
There's knowledge there. If you don't, take the support that you need.
It can be incredibly frustrating and difficult.
I had a friend whose wife was breastfeeding and she was trying for like four or five hours and she'd just be in hysterics at the end and tears.
I mean, it's such an emotional challenge.
So I definitely, you know, if you're a husband, support, support, support.
If you know, if you're a friend, just support like crazy.
If there are challenges in breastfeeding, it can turn you as a woman inside out.
So I don't mean to sort of be glib about it like it's always easy and sometimes it's really, really difficult, but it's so essential to stick through it.
An increasing number of births are taking place in baby-friendly facilities, but they represent now just over 7% of all U.S. births.
So, these are the facts.
These are the facts. We go to science to find out what is best for our children, and what is best for our children so often is how we developed as a species.
Breastfeeding was developed for a reason, because the lactation powder trees were often over the other side of the mountain.
And so we go back to, you know, baby contact is essential.
Stay with your baby. Sleep with your baby.
Be with your baby. They were inside you for nine months.
Crushed them up against you for nine months or 18 months more.
I think we went to 18 months for breastfeeding.
But do all of that stuff.
It's really, really important.
Go to the science. Don't go to history.
Don't go to the doctor necessarily.
Obviously, for medical advice, absolutely.
But when it comes to things like formula, unless there's a medical reason, Just go to the facts.
This is what's best for your baby.
This is what is best for your baby's development, emotional development.
You want that empathy. You want those language skills.
You want those cognitive skills and emotional skills to be as high as possible.
It's going to make your job as a parent so much better.
It is so much fun to be a dad when you have given that kind of support to your kid.
I've been there to put her to bed almost every single night of her life.
I'm here every day.
And it just makes all the difference in the world in terms of how much fun, how much connection you can have as a parent.
You know, we did this video That's the last point I made.
Sorry for lecturing.
We did this video, The Truth About Circumcision.
I got tons of emails from moms who were like, well, you know, it reduces the risk of penile cancer.
Eh, not true. But obviously this is something they'd read.
Oh, it reduces the risk of STDs.
Eh, not true. Oh, it reduces the risk of HIV. Eh, not true.
But this is they believed that you had to...
Gouge the foreskin off the baby's penis and slice half the skin off the penis for really dubious way in the future and contentious possible health benefits.
So that's what they were willing to do to the boy for really sketchy maybe health benefits that aren't actually even true.
If this is true, if the moms are like, well, this is what you've got to do, and the dads are, this is what you've got to do for the health of the baby.
A, don't circumcise. B, this is really clear stuff.
This is going to be plus IQ points probably.
This along with spanking is going to probably give you 5 to 10 points extra IQ. That is a huge difference.
That's the difference between doing a BA and getting halfway through a PhD, for God's sakes.
So, that's really important.
This is about the best thing that you can do.
Take the time off.
Take the time off. It used to be like four years, five years.
Now, some psychologists are saying the first three years are really essential.
So one of you needs to stay home for three years.
Find a way to do it.
If you've got to go live in your parents' basement, if you've got to go live in a small one-bedroom apartment.
I mean, you made those sacrifices to go through school, didn't you, right?
Four years to go through school.
This is three years.
Your kid is going to be in your life for 50 years.
Three years at the beginning to make the rest of those 47 years so much better is an investment that no sane person could ever turn down.
So find a way to make it happen and breastfeed if at all humanly possible.
This is Stefan Moly from Freedom Main Radio.
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