We are all very clear about the benefits of breastfeeding to the point that there are thousands of people trying to keep opening breastmilk banks in hospital centers where they do not yet exist.
15,000 people have signed requesting a breast milk bank in Euskadi and we have also known these days that it benefits the brain of premature babies in addition to influencing the intestinal flora of the baby, new discoveries that serve to continue supporting this type of feeding for babies.
15,000 signatures
Exactly 15,420 signatures have been presented by María García, who works in the neonatal unit of the Hospital de Cruces in Bizkaia, in the Basque Parliament. He has also explained to parliamentarians the benefits of feeding babies through Breastfeeding, certainly the best food for sick and premature babies and if it cannot be the milk of his own mother, the best alternative is to donate breast milk donated from healthy donor women and then pasteurized in the center.
Bzkaia Cross Hospital is the reference center of the Basque Autonomous Community that currently has no breast milk bank in none of the centers of the public health system, something that with these more than 15,000 signatures intend to correct.
Only in this hospital, it has been estimated that there would be around 200 babies who, being admitted to their facilities, could benefit from this breast milk bank. To these should be added to those of the other hospitals in this community.
Riding a breast milk bank in a hospital like this, according to the calculations presented by María García in the Basque Parliament, would be around 100,000 euros that a priori may seem a very high figure but that in the long run it has been shown to represent significant savings health, hence its creation should be a health priority.
Premature babies
One of the reasons that raise the need for them to believe Breast milk banks in hospitals is how beneficial this diet is for premature babies.
It has recently been confirmed that breast milk helps promote the neurological development of premature babies, born before term and that generally have not developed one hundred percent.
We talked about a study published by the University of Washington in Saint Louis which has been presented at the annual meeting of the Pediatric Academic Societies, in Baltimore.
Dr. Cynthia Rogers has been the one who presented this study after participating in its preparation, in which it has been shown that breast milk is useful in all areas of development including the baby's brain.
Different studies, as explained by Dr. Rogers have shown that there is a correlation between brain volume and cognitive development and have been able to verify that those babies fed with breastfeeding had brains with greater volume.
Using a scanner, they could verify that babies with diets that included at least 50 percent of breast milk had more brain tissue and more cortical surface area than those who had not received this type of breastfeeding.
And the intestinal flora
Recently, a study carried out by the University of Colorado in the United States in which they have shown that hormones such as leptin and insulin, contained in breast milk, influence the intestinal flora of the baby, contribute to the maturation of their digestive system. Is the first study on this aspect in particular of breast milk and it will not be because this product is not analyzed for different centers or for different reasons.
In this investigation it was concluded that insulin and leptin levels are directly linked to the greater microbial diversity of the intestinal flora. This research will help to better understand those factors that help to have a healthy immune system in babies.
