Breast milk Breastfeeding gives you more life chances

Breast milk increases opportunities for social advancement: More opportunities in life through breastfeeding

06/26/2013

Breastfeeding may have a lifelong impact on the development of the offspring, according to a British study. For example, it increases the chance of career advancement.

Lifelong social benefits
In babies, breast-feeding leads to increased opportunities for social advancement. This is the result of a large-scale study by British researchers, who surveyed more than 17,000 people born in 1958 and more than 16,000 from the 1970s. A study evaluation was published in the journal „Archives of Disease in Childhood. "As a result, the chances of social advancement through breast-feeding are increased by a quarter. „Our study extends the understanding of the health benefits of breastfeeding by showing that it can have lifelong social benefits.“ For this purpose, the data of the test persons were used at the age of ten to eleven and from 33 to 34 years. The likelihood of climbing the social ladder is 24 percent higher in nursing children than in the case of nursing infants. Researchers consider social advancement when children reach a higher position than their father.

Breast milk allows infants to fight off bacteria and viruses
Children who are breastfed would also show less stress symptoms. Here, polyunsaturated fatty acids (LPCUFA), which are needed in the construction of the brain, play an important role. Breastmilk, packed with bioactive ingredients that affect key variables in the body, is generally more than just a food product. It allows babies to fend off bacteria and viruses or prevent them from becoming susceptible to certain diseases. Breast milk contains over 700 different bacteria and a lot of nutrients that provide the baby with the optimal nutrition. Mothers are advised in Germany to breastfeed their child for six months, if this is possible for the mother for health and psychosocial factors.

Breastfeeding promotes the development of the brain
In addition to the health benefits and improved social opportunities, breastfeeding, according to the study, also promotes brain development. Similar conclusions were reached by scientists from the World Health Organization WHO, who followed the development of breastfed and non-breastfed children in Belarus for six and a half years. So it could be that under the influence of mother's milk intestinal cells enter into the blood signal substances, which promote maturation processes in the brain. Michael Kramer, epidemiologist at McGill University in Canada, summarizes: „In the first years of life there were many health benefits for the breastfed children. But the only long-term effect that could be measured was a difference in the intelligence quotient. "These children had an intelligence quotient that was six points higher on average shortly after enrollment.

Male babies in the advantage
Even among babies, injustice begins between the sexes. Male babies have a clear advantage because they can benefit from nutritious fatty acids and valuable proteins in their mother's milk. In the case of female babies, on the other hand, there is a particular lack of valuable lactose in breastfeeding milk. This is justified by evolutionary biologists that men can theoretically produce countless children, but a pregnancy in women lasts months. Therefore, from the viewpoint of maternal biology, the more valuable nutrients in sons are better prepared to increase the likelihood of many offspring. (Ad)

Picture: Helene Souza