We know that breastmilk isn’t called ‘liquid gold’ for nothing. Now, there’s even more good news for breastfeeding moms!
A recent study has findings that can definitively say that breastfeeding mothers have a reservoir of bio-molecules or special substances that exist to fight infection and inflammation.
According to researchers from Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH), these specialized pro-resolving mediators or SPMs are present and waiting all over our bodies in small quantities. When we get sick, they are activated to help the illness resolve.
But their findings showed that breastfeeding moms have a huge store of these SPMs that are naturally active in their milk.
Aside from fighting inflammation and infection, the bio-molecules found in mother’s milk can also allegedly help heal wounds and dull pain in babies.
This means that breastfeeding gives newborns a fresh batch of these nutritious, infection-fighting substances at every single feeding!
Cow’s milk has nothing on breastmilk
Researchers have been looking for these SPMs in our bodies and food. Once they found that breastmilk had so much of these, they also checked breastmilk produced by mothers with mastitis, an infection and inflammation of the breasts that occurs during breastfeeding.
What they noticed was that milk from mothers with mastitis contained a considerably lesser amount of these SPMs than normal breastmilk. Cow’s milk also did not have any of these nutrients.
No surprise here
Experts have always known that breastmilk contains tons of nutrients for babies. But with this new research, they’re able to identify these molecules and substances for what they are.
Researchers are set to explore what further role these SPMs play in helping newborns survive and how their early immune systems develop with exclusive breastfeeding.
Tell us what you think about this development! Just leave a comment below with your thoughts.