Should women breastfeed their children

Should women breastfeed their children

Qistina & Nasrin 

In this modern day, being new parents can be quite challenging. You always want the best for your child in every aspect and at the same time, you need to keep up with the challenges as an adult. From little things, such as what name that you will give to them, what kind of things that you have to buy for your child to bigger things like what to feed them and the most crucial question is what kind of milk to feed your baby with. Which one do you prefer? Feeding your baby with expensive formula milk or spending your precious time to breastfeed your beloved baby? Research suggests that breastfeeding is more beneficial for a mother and child because it is affordable, it lowers the rate of disease toward the babies and mothers and it affects the intelligence of babies.

First of all, every mother can afford to buy breastfeed their children financially regardless of their income. As we all know, the price of formula milk could be up to RM100 per can especially for the imported formula milk such as Friso Gold and Pediasure. Every parent wanted the best milk to feed their babies however not all parents can afford to buy the imported milk which is known to be the best milk for babies. Parents can opt to breastfeed their babies because breastmilk has more nutrition as compared to formula milk, even the most expensive formula milk does not have that much nutrition like breastmilk. If parents choose to breastfeed their babies, they could save almost RM2000 per year from purchasing the formula milk. Since breastmilk is self-produced, mothers do not need money to get the endless supply of food. This proves that breastfeeding is reasonably priced to every mother in the world.  

In addition, breastfeeding could also decrease the rate of disease towards babies and mothers. The newborns can get passive immunity against several viruses and bacteria from breast milk. Breastfeeding has been estimated to prevent 13% of deaths to children under 5 years of age that live in a low-income country (Mathur & Dhingra, 2013 as cited in Byers, 2015). Besides, illness and infection can easily affect newborns and therefore they benefit greatly from passive immunity and probiotics that breast milk provides. The ability to be immune towards infections such as Escherichia coli and Shigella can be acquired through passive immunity by the infants from the mother’s immunity. (Davidson et al. 2012 as cited in Byers, 2015).

Another benefit that the lactating mother gains from breastfeeding is the nonpharmacological method of contraception while decreasing a woman’s risk for developing female cancers related to estrogen, proliferation of the uterus, ovaries, and breasts. Progesterone and progestin can reduce woman’s risk of developing endometrial, ovarian, and breast cancer by hindering or counteracting immoderate tissue production that is initiated by estrogen without suppressing the beneficial effects of estrogen. (Risch, 1998 as cited in Byers, 2015). According to medical researchers, Pechlivani and Vivilaki , results from research teams located in multiple countries worldwide (including the United States, Sweden, the United Kingdom, Israel, Norway, and China) have demonstrated an inverse correlation between the length of time that a woman breastfeeds and the risk of breast cancer (Davidson et al., 2012 as cited in Byers, 2015).

Last but not least, breastfeeding will give such great impacts to kids’ intelligence.  Young children who breastfeed as infants scored higher on intelligence tests than formula-fed kids. The presence of long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids in breastmilk, inc docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) which are necessary for retinal and cortical brain development (Bernardo & Cesar, 2013). Breastfeeding is positively related to brain volume and it promotes structural changes in the brain (Bernardo & Cesar, 2013).

Breastfeeding has many potentials benefits towards autistic children in respect to neurological, cognitive and emotional development. Besides of health problems, autistic people will face problems that are related to the brain development such as cognitive and neurological problems. Therefore, the natural ingredients in the human milk which contain high concentrations of essential nutrition will enhance the health of the brain (LEAVEN, 2001). Apart from that, breastfeeding can enhance the emotional development among children through the close physical and emotional contact with the mother. Children will be more responsive and better-adjusted socially if they were breastfed (Jackson & Reznek, 1992 as cited in LEAVEN, 2001).

The longer babies breastfed, the more they will accomplish in their life. It was proven that those kids who breastfed were smarter, perform better at school and gained more than those who had not been. According to Dr. Bernado Lessa Horta from the Federal University of Pelotas, the prolonged breastfeeding not only enhances intelligence up to 30 years but also affect the kids both at individual and societal level through the improvement of educational attainment and earning ability (Boseley, S., 2015). World Health Organization also suggested exclusive breastfeeding which is for the first six months because it is justified by Dr. Horta that the babies will get lots of benefit from it (Boseley, S., 2015).

As a conclusion, it is vital for all women out there to understand the importance of breastfeeding and practice it to their children as it is cheaper than purchasing formula milk, it is beneficial towards both the babies and the mothers in terms of health and breastfeeding could also improve the children’s intelligence. It is time for every mother to give what is good and use what God has given to them naturally to their children because nothing is better than a mother’s choice.

Dangers of Second-hand Smoke (SHS)

*Take a deep breath*

Have you thought that not being a smoker is good enough to maintain our healthiness from the chronic disease that might be suffered from those smokers? Yes, most of us do not realize that they are breathing the second-hand smoke. Instead of going away from the smoky places, we tend to just stand still and smell it. Don't feel you terrible because of the scent of the cigarette? We know that smoking brings a lot of bad consequences yet we do not know how terrifying are the effects of smoking which not only towards our body but also affecting the animals and our environment. Scary, is it? So today, I want to persuade all of you to become more concern about every single particle that you inhale especially when you are hanging out at public places or maybe you are living with a smoker. Before that, let me review my main points. First of all, second-hand smoke (SHS) are harming humans’ health, affecting animals especially pets that live indoor and the third one is second-hand smoke also give catastrophe consequences to our earth.

Okay let's start with the first main point, second-hand smoke is a serious threat to human health. It begins with the babies. Breathing second-hand smoke (SHS) is known as the cause of Sudden Infants Death Syndrome (SIDS). Thus, babies that have been surrounded by second-hand smoke are more likely to die of Sudden Infants Death Syndrome than babies who are not around the second-hand smoke. (Richard & Kenneth, 2005) This is the main reason why pregnant women need to ask their husband and anyone to smoke away from them because it could give bad consequences to the baby. Besides, babies that being surrounded by second-hand smoke also tend to have lower birth weights. The tendency for them to have breathe problems until they become adults is high. Hence, a good parent it is better for you to eradicate the smoking habits because it not only saves your life but

also your beloved one.

Other than babies, older children also get the impacts from the second-hand smoke. Those parents whose smoke are responsible for their children’s health. According to Richard and Kenneth, children can get more bronchitis and pneumonia. Besides, they have to deal with difficulty in breathing and coughing often. It does not only stop there, but second-hand smoke could trigger asthma. Around 40% go to the operation room as a result of living with the smokers. Plus, a severe asthma attack can put life at risk. There is no amount of smoke that is safe to our body, including adults. According to Japanese researchers at American Heart Association (ASA) meeting, even as little as 30 minutes of second-hand smoke (SHS) can result in hardening of arteries in non-smokers. Now, imagine. How many minutes you had spent with the smoke in the public areas or did you breathe the smoke almost every day because you live with a smoker? We should not take this as a light problem because the SHS make platelet in the body act like those regular smokers. Even a short period in a smoky environment, it causes the platelet to stick together that would lead to many complications.

The second fact that you know is that second-hand smoking not only harms the health of human being but it also harms the health of animals especially pets that live indoor. According to Dr. Jan Bellows, a veterinarian at All Pets Denta Clinic in Weston, he said that since pets spend much more time in the house compared to us, this increases their exposure to carcinogenic substances which are harmful to their health. Moreover, a late research on LiveScience.com indicated that pooches with long muzzles will probably create more sinus since their noses and sinuses have more surface zone on which cancer-causing agents can gather. Besides, while grooming themselves, cats are more likely to get mouth and lymph nodes cancers because they will lick up their furs that have cumulated by the toxic substances. Likewise, birds are sensitive to the second-hand smoke because they spend most of the time flying in the air and might put their life at risks. Albeit animals are small in size, there is no exception for them for them to breathe the clean air. For the sake of animals' health, we need to be more observant about the surrounding that our pets breathing. In short, second-hand smoke from the cigarette affecting animals' health.

The third fact that you should consider is that environment is the other victim of the second-hand smoke. Smoking can be the major factor that threatening our air pollution. Smoking cigarettes can generate severe environmental pollution. In all kinds of pollution, air pollution is considered as the most dangerous one because it will attack your cardiovascular system that can lead you to death. Basically, there are two main atmosphere-polluting chemicals in air pollution which are carbon dioxide and methane. About 2.6 billion kg of CO2 and 5.2 billion kg of methane being released into the atmosphere annually. In addition, SHS contain the carcinogen, toxic metals and poisonous gasses which are very dangerous and degrading our air quality. In this case, Centre of Disease Control carried out and experiment regarding respirable suspended particles (RSP) and the result showed that RSP level in places that banned public smoking is decreasing up to 96% compared to places that allow public smoking. This shows how crucial it is to choose a good place to live in because there is a huge difference regarding the level of toxic substances in the clean air and the dirty air. This can be proven by the outdoor tobacco smoke (OTS) experiment that had been carried out in Helsinki, Finland. The results showed that places that being surrounded by smokers polluted 5 to 20 times higher than the sidewalks of busy streets that packed with vehicles.

In a conclusion, second-hand smoke (SHS) is a serious hazard health that gives big consequences to the human being, animals, and our environment. The government should take actions to limit the smoking areas and develop places that designated exclusively for smoking to minimize the rate of second-hand smoke so that we can create a healthier environment. For public safety, smokers should not be allowed to smoke in the same place where the non-smokers breathe. The smokers might claim that it is their human right to smoke whatever they want. However, the non-smokers also have their rights to breathe the clean air that free from chemicals substances. Thus, think wisely before you surround yourself with the smokers or if you are a smoker, think about your beloved one.

Fresh Start

Hi & Assalamualaikum. Today is the first chapter of 2017. And yes, let me create all the unforgettable memories and achieve my ultimate goals because this is the last "teen" year in my life. I will turn to 20 next years. I'm old. I need to save more money lol.  

Hey, do you know that nothing is much more important than acknowledging yourself as someone who is worth? How you are going to tackle life if you are not able to believe in yourself? If you don't have faith in yourself probably you need people who are willing to tell how worth and beautiful you are in this world. What I've learned in the late of 2016 was, never be degraded by others. Never let people know your insecurities by showing how weak you are when they teased you. Never. Wake up and fight to kill your insecurities and whatever that makes you feel humiliated. The other thing that I've learned was, pretty people will always get a better treatment. I'm not stereotyping but that's the reality. Beauty always comes first. Beauty with a brain. Beauty with the skills. It's weird when you put something before "beauty" like a brain with beauty? 

Nevermind. If you want to become prettier, you just need to make up your soul and it will shine outside. What is the point of having a pretty face but you only skillful in humiliating others? 

Bye