Thursday, August 03, 2006

Breastfeeding Reduces Anxiety

Just in time for WBW, here's an article about how breastfeeding reduces anxiety in the breastfed child - even years after weaning.

Breastfeeding reduces anxiety in the mother, too, though this article doesn't go into that. Once you get past the stressful early weeks, it's very soothing to know that you have everything your baby needs nutritionally for the first six months. And then there's the hormonal cocktail of prolactin and oxytocin, which has been shown to calm down the breastfeeding mother.

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