Liquid Gold
Colostrum or baby’s first milk is
quite literally, liquid gold. This precious first-food for baby is proving to
be more valuable than we ever imagined now that we understand its composition
and function. Can you believe that at one time, mothers were told to express
and discard this milk because it was said to be the ‘waste product of
pregnancy’?
Ultra-sweet, this thick, yellow
creamy milk is all that a baby needs for the
first few days of life.
Supplementary water and formula ‘until your milk comes
in’ is old-fashioned, incorrect advice. I remember arguing with an older doctor
about this once when he asked his patient, who had recently given birth, if the
midwives had given her baby water yet. When she said no, he accused me of
neglecting my duties as a midwife.
I calmly told him that newborn’s
only need colostrum to which he argued: “You drink water don’t you?”
“Yes,” I answered. “I wasn’t born
yesterday.”
He thought I was being cheeky, so I
elaborated. “Newborn’s don’t need water,” I insisted. “All they need is MOM –
Mothers Own Milk.”
This left the mother in a dilemma.
Who should she believe? Her (old-fashioned) doctor or the midwife? When the
doctor left, she asked me to bring a bottle of water for her baby. Sigh.
Colostrum is coloured yellow
because it’s rich in beta-carotene – a type of Vitamin A.
Vitamin A facts:
- Babies and young children need vitamin A for optimal health, growth, and development.
- Almost all children are born with low stores of vitamin A. During the first six months of life, mothers need to breastfeed exclusively to increase their babies’ vitamin A stores.
- After six months, vitamin A comes from breastmilk and vitamin A-rich foods.
Newborn only need to drink one
teaspoonful of colostrum to fill their tiny stomachs.
Five millilitres of
colostrum is equal in nutritional value to 30 millilitres of mature breast
milk.
Like puppies or kittens, babies need to be close to their
mothers so that they can be given frequent feeds. As often as they need – on
average, two hourly. When babies are filled-up with formula, they will sleep
for four hours or longer.
This means that Mom misses out on frequent suckling
that not only helps to release hormones to make milk, these hormones also help
to keep her womb contracted, and this helps to minimise the risk of
haemorrhaging after the birth.
