Protective factors of breast milk

To nourish and protect - these are the goals pursued by every mother in relation to the nutrition of the child. You have already learned that breast milk provides children with ideal nutrition;now you will find out that this rich product also protects them.

White blood cells. Each drop of your milk is alive - it is home to millions of tiny white blood cells that circulate through the baby's intestines, seizing and destroying pathogens. The nutritional properties of milk and its ability to kill pathogens are so valuable that in ancient times it was called white blood. These protective cells, like a vigilant mother, are in the greatest number in the first weeks of life, when your newborn's own protective system is still very weak. As the immune system matures, the concentration of white blood cells in your milk gradually decreases, although they are still present in your milk, at least up to six months of age.

In addition to fighting infection, these precious cells, like blood, store and transfer priceless elements, such as enzymes, growth factors and pathogens that kill pathogenic microorganisms - other health aids, to which we now turn.

Immunoglobulins. In the supplement to live white blood cells, your milk also contains immunoglobulins - infection-fighting proteins that circulate, like natural antibiotics, over the body and kill pathogens. In the first six months of life, the immune system of the child is immature, i.е.there is a deficit of protective antibodies. Your child produces a certain amount of antibodies almost immediately after birth, but a level sufficient for protection is reached only by nine to twelve months. Mother comes to the scene. To protect your child from pathogens, you as a mother make up for the insufficient immunity of the child in many ways. First, you give your child antibodies in your blood through the placenta. But these immunoglobulins in the blood run out at the age of nine months. As the amount of your antibodies in your child's blood drops, the amount of immunoglobulins in your milk rises;Your milk completes the work of your blood, protecting your child until its or its own defense system ripens - this maturation process is almost certainly near the end of the first year of life. Your breasts function after giving birth just like your placenta before birth - nourishes and protects.

Immunization with milk. Colostrum, the primary milk that produces the mammary glands, is most abundant in white blood cells and protects against infection at the most appropriate time - when your newborn's protective system is at the lowest level. Another perfect coincidence. Consider colostrum the first vaccination of your child.

To evaluate the immunization with milk, let's trace the fate of one important member of the immunoglobulin team - immunoglobulin A in your baby's intestines. In the first months of life, the immature intestine of the child resembles a sieve that allows foreign substances( allergenic proteins) to penetrate the child's blood, which can potentially cause allergies. Contained in breast milk, immunoglobulin A serves as a protective layer that closes these holes in the intestinal lining and prevents the penetration of unwanted microbes and allergens into the bloodstream.

Constantly updated protection system. Your milk is a custom-made infection control product that kills the pathogenic microbes found in the environment around your child. The microbes around you are constantly changing, but your body has a protective system that recognizes useful and harmful microorganisms. This system is immature in newborn infants. When a new microbe penetrates the mother's body, it produces antibodies that kill this microbe. This new army of fighters with infection then penetrates the baby through the milk. Now the child is also protected. This dynamic milk immunization process is constantly adapting to changes in order to provide the mother with the child with the most reliable protection system.

New discoveries of

Every year I pick up a medical journal and read about the discovery of a new element in breast milk. Since the

the exact equivalent of these substances is often not known, the researchers call them factors. We have already discussed the satiety factor. One of the new members of the team of factors is the epidermal growth factor, named so because it stimulates the growth of important cells. The epidermal cells lining your baby's intestines perform a very important job in the process of food processing. The epidermal growth factor acts like a tonic, accelerating the growth of important cells, such as these, throughout the baby's body. Your milk also contains many of your hormones - vital substances that help the work of important organs.

We touched only the tip of the iceberg, noting the unique properties and components of human milk. In human milk there are many other valuable nutrients that are not found in artificial mixtures, but since we do not yet know their significance, we often discard their importance from the accounts. When new technologies allow us to study these special nutrients, we will cherish breastmilk as the best first food for the baby even more. Science only now begins to discover what mothers have known for a long time - both children and mothers are better if they are breastfeeding.

So it is better for the mother

In addition to the fact that breast milk is best for your child, breastfeeding is best for you. There will be marathon days, when the child will be constantly at the breast;you will feel that you are squeezed out of all milk, all energy and all patience. As one of my patients once said: "I have a feeling that breastfeeding is one big marathon for self-sacrifice."Breastfeeding is not only about giving, giving, giving. The pay for your time and effort will be immeasurably huge, and as long as you are breastfeeding, and in the years to come.

One of the main advantages of breastfeeding - and the leitmotif of this book is mutual return: you give to the child, the child gives you. When your child sucks your breasts, you give your baby their milk. The sucking movements of the baby stimulate the nerve endings in your nipple that send a signal to your pituitary gland - the main control panel in your brain - to produce the hormone prolactin - one of the major hormones that make a woman a mother. This magical substance flows along the highways of the woman's organism, prompting her what choice to make in this or that situation, and causing in her gentle motherly feelings.