Friday, July 29, 2005

August is Breast-feeding Awareness Month

When Jenette Ganter gives birth to her first child in September, she has every intention of breast-feeding him or her. That was her plan even before she took a breast-feeding class last week at WELL/A Mother's Place, a program of Yale-New Haven Hospital that provides childbirth and parenting education. (WELL stands for Women's Education Life Learning.) Ganter always knew that breast-feeding was the best nutritional option for her baby. She just didn't know all the reasons why. But when she and her husband took the class, the 28-year-old New Haven mom-to-be learned just how many benefits there are to breast-feeding. For instance, she learned through the class that breast-feeding decreases the mom's risk for breast cancer and helps her drop her baby weight. Also, breast-feeding advocates and many in the health care industry agree that breast milk is the perfect food for a growing baby.
"I didn't realize that there's a pretty extensive list of reasons why you should breast-feed," Ganter said. "It just seems like our bodies were designed to breast-feed."

Ganter has been enlightened about the importance of breast-feeding, but hospitals and health facilities throughout the region are hoping to teach even more women about this lost "art" over the next several weeks.



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