Mother's Milk: Ideal Nutrition for Babies

All about the nutritional benefits of breastfeeding,
from Charis Childbirth

"Every year medical journal articles describe more valuable substances discovered in human milk. Scientists are only beginning to write the story on other factors in human milk that may be important to baby's growth and development. For example, other enzymes besides lipase are available to aid infant digestion. Epidermal growth factor, present in human milk in significant amounts, may promote the development of tissues in the digestive tract and elsewhere. Other hormones in milk may influence a baby's metabolism, growth, and physiology. The effects may be subtle, but they may also have far-reaching implications. Being breastfed has advantages that reach into adulthood. Science is only beginning to learn what these benefits are."

Click here to read the article.

Toddler Helps Mother in Delivery of Baby Brother

When this woman started having her baby in the living room of her home, her 2-year old instinctively went to get a towel and came back to catch the baby. Cool or what?!?

http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2009/nov/18/good-catch-toddler-helps-in-delivery-of-baby/

Two-year-old Jeremiha Taylor doesn't have to ask his mother where babies come from -- he helped deliver his little brother at the foot of his family's living room couch. "He's my little hero," Jeremiha's mom, Bobbye Favazza, 27, of Olive Branch, said Tuesday. "It was like he knew what to do." Favazza gave birth to a 7-pound, 4-ounce baby boy, Kamron Taylor, on Friday morning. Firefighters arrived moments later to cut the umbilical cord.

Newborn Babies Cry in Their Native Tongue

Here's an excerpt from an interesting news story about still another way babies are influenced by their mothers while in the womb...

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33656622/ns/health-kids_and_parenting/

"Prenatal exposure to language was known to influence newborns. For instance, past research showed they preferred their mother's voice over those of others.

Still, researchers thought infants did not imitate sounds until much later on. Although three-month-old babies can match vowel sounds that adults make, this skill depends on vocal control just not physically possible much earlier.

However, when scientists recorded and analyzed the cries of 60 healthy newborns when they were three to five days old — 30 born into French-speaking families, 30 into German-speaking ones — their analysis revealed clear differences in the melodies of their cries based on their native tongue."