breastfeeding
Did you know that various studies have proven that breastfeeding acts as an analgesic for babies? MM takes a look at how and why breastfeeding can…
Take away
the pain Y
et another study has been published that proves that breastfeeding acts as an analgesic in babies!
New research from the University of
Ottawa in Canada has discovered that breastfeeding reduces the pain babies feel when they receive vaccinations. Researchers found that feeding infants
while they are being given a jab reduces crying time by an average of 38 seconds. While babies, who were breastfed cried for between fourteen seconds and two minutes when injected, those who were not breastfed cried for between 35 seconds and nearly three minutes. Researchers - who looked at six studies
involving 547 babies up to the age of twelve months - concluded that breastfeeding was better at reducing pain than feeding the
baby water or a sweet sugar solution, or expressed breast milk. Te link between breastfeeding and
reduced pain in babies is not, however, exactly new. As far back as 2008, research carried out at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto made similar findings. For that study, neonatologist
Prakeshkumar Shah and his team gathered data from eleven studies of more than 1000 newborns. Te trials tested the effectiveness of breastfeeding and breast milk compared to sugar water or soother - to countering the discomfort of the babies' first blood draw during heelprick tests. 'Te babies who were breastfed,' Shah
said at the time, 'experienced less pain compared to not giving anything or just swaddling them or giving them a placebo of sterile water.'
Even further back, in 2004, a study which
was published in Te British Medical Journal found that allowing babies to breastfeed during painful medical procedures appeared to relieve their degree of pain. Tat particular study observed 180 newborns, who were placed into one of four groups when having blood taken. Babies in the first group were allowed to
breastfeed, those in the second were held by their mothers but not fed, those in the third group were given water as a placebo, and those in the fourth were given sugar water and a dummy. Researchers in that study again concluded that breastfeeding is an excellent, natural alternative to prevent or reduce pain during minor daily procedures undergone by neonates. So, the evidence is certainly there, but
why does breast milk help to reduce pain? > MODERNMUM 41
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