Submitted by LKVM

New mothers who find it hard to breastfeed their babies, have no need to feel guilty .

A Norwegian study found that difficulty in feeding a newborn can be due to the higher levels of male hormone in womb during pregnancy. After reviewing all the available evidence, researchers from Norwegian University of Science and Technology said, mothers who find breastfeeding so hard should not feel guilty. They said the difficulty in feeding a newborn may be because of the higher levels of the male hormone testosterone in womb during pregnancy.

"Basically a mother who finds she has difficulty shouldn’t feel guilty, probably is just the way it is, and her baby will not suffer for being fed formula milk," the BBC has quoted lead researcher Prof Sven Carlsen as saying. "A mother should do what makes her happy," he said. He argued that it is the hormone balance in the womb which explains both a mother’s ability to breastfeed and any apparent health benefits of a baby who is breastfed rather than the breast milk itself.

Last year Prof Carlsen’s team reviewed 50 international studies on the relationship between breastfeeding and health. In the study, published in journal Acta Obstetricia and Gynacologica Scandinavica , the researchers followed 180 pregnant women.