Apr 10
16
Hispanic Women Breast Feed More?
Breast feeding has enjoyed quite a nice resurgence over the past decade. What with all the press about natural this and natural that, and how much we have learned about the tangible benefits that breast feeding can give our youngsters when it comes to everything from immunity to development, it’s no wonder that more and more women are turning to this method of feeding their little ones.
Bottle feeding was still enjoying quite a bit of popularity when I was a child. My sister and I were both bottle fed, and I think we turned out ok, aside from me having asthma, we don’t really have a weak immune system or lesser intelligence, so I think some of the claims may be questionable. However, I do believe that breast feeding serves as a huge bonding element between mother and infant,and provides a baby with a sense of security like no other, so if I were to ever have children, then I would almost definitely be breast feeding, knowing what I know today.
Apparently Hispanic mothers win the breast feeding frequency contest when it comes to which groups of women tend to go for breast feeding their kids more out of black and white women. The news for us Americans isn’t so good.
I guess that Hispanic women, the longer they are in the states and further east culture, not only do their eating habits become worse (yikes, what’s that say about us?!), but they are also more likely to adopt using formula to feed their babies and ok with it. In the Hispanic culture though, breast feeding is very wide spread, and accepted as the best method for feeding your baby.
Another benefit to babies that are breast fed, in addition to the idea that breast feeding helps babies build antibodies more quickly and also may help with their development and even their intelligence factors, is that babies who are breast fed are also less likely to become overweight and put on weight as quickly as babies who are bottle fed.
I’m honestly not sure how valid all of this research is, since it was based on phone interviews with women who had recently had babies, but it probably does show the general proclivity of the hispanic culture to breast feed their children. It’s interesting that Hispanic women actually chose to adopt bottle feeding more readily when they came over here to the US, because I barely know anyone who has not breast fed their bambinos over here, it seems like every new mom I know breast feeds!
