The good stuff

The first liquid the mother produces after the birth of a child is called colostrum and is high in carbohydrates, proteins and antibodies. It actually works as a vaccine and is full of immune factors.

Colostrum is so good that everyone can benefit from it and colustrum is one of the ingredients in a glyconutritional product that one can now buy for adults and older children.

After a few days the mother begins to produce milk and it also contains antibodies and is still the best immunizer for babies...

Breast milk is a complete meal for babies and is the best meal for all the above reasons -

On top of all the good stuff in breast milk, breast feeding gives the mother and baby a chance to get to know each other in a most personal way and for overall psychological development that too is a great thing - call it bonding or attachment or whatever- it's a basis for a person to person relationship.

Some argue against breast feeding as it is seen as an impediment to either working or for having the father involved. I'm lost at the father aspect - can't he sit and hold the baby for an equal amount of time? And why should a baby not get all the immunity possible just to keep some sort of "equal" sharing happening? Seems to me that when you use that argument as one against breast feeding- oops- there another issue going on in that family...

And working - nowadays some companies allow babies at work or have an onsite nursery so the mothers can go feed the babies - and most mothers take off some amount of time after the birth. But if one needs to go to work, there are breast pumps so that you can express the milk and store it for bottle use by others - the dads or the sitters or care takers...