There are a few books that cover this topic and there has been extensive research on the emotional effects of not breastfeeding your baby. I remember reading somewhere that it can be considered ‘maternal deprivation’ sort of. Why? Because when you breastfeed you have to hold the baby or have the baby close to your body. When you bottle feed it can be tempting to prop the bottle, thus depriving baby of your warmth and closeness, which some researchers believe has a deep affect on how well said baby is able to develop emotional bonds with other people in the future. Also once the baby is old enough to hold the bottle it decreases the likelihood that the baby will be held during feeding.

I remember when I was a teen mom getting WIC and they would always ask me if I propped the bottle onto anything when feeding my daughter. Sometimes I did, and I felt just terrible about it when my mom caught me after a few times and explained to me that I needed to hold her at all times when feeding her because, among other things, it was nurturing and she needed my closeness. So I did after that and got really into reading child development books and such.

This blog entry written by Trula Breckenridge. Thanks for visiting Mama Specific Productions!

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