Lactation, hormones, benefits, and disorders associated with breastfeeding
Breastfeeding should be one of the most natural things in nature between a mother and her child, and had I not experienced it for myself twice before I would assume there was nothing complicated about it. Boy, was I wrong. There are so many physical and emotional changes that occur during a healthy transition into nursing a child, but also many disorders and hardships can occur along the way and cause a mother to give up and left feeling guilty and confused. Thankfully, there are many types of baby formula to provide food and nutrients to a child but the benefits of breast milk cannot be compared. Not only can breastfeeding become challenging on its own, our society has casted a sexual stigma on a woman’s breasts themselves. Public nursing has created much controversy and debate on what is acceptable nudity and there are many advocate groups out there hoping to educate others on the benefits of breastfeeding in hopes to normalize public nursing so it can become less shameful.
Many hormones are involved in pregnancy, fetal growth, and producing breast milk. One of the first hormones produced during implantation is HCG, human chorionic gonadotropin. hCG is how a pregnancy is determined through at home urine tests or blood tests from a clinic. (Cohen; 2013) Progesterone is another hormone produced during pregnancy. The role of progesterone is to nourish the embryo, maintain the endometrium, and decrease the uterine muscle’s ability to contract and essentially expelling the embryo from the body. Progesterone also prepares the breasts for milk secretion. (Cohen; 2013) At the 11th or 12th week of pregnancy, the hCG is no longer needed and the body prepares to shift from producing hCG to hPL, human placental lactogen. HPL is vital for preparing the mother for lactation and regulating her blood for nutrients available for the fetus. (Cohen; 2013) Another hormone produced during pregnancy...