Your milk contains oxytocin, a hormone that induces feelings of well-being and stimulates processes related to growth and healing in your baby.
During breastfeeding, oxytocin is also released into the brain of the mother and the baby, where it reduces feelings of stress, decreases sensitivity to pain, and decreases inflammation.
Oxytocin and breastfeeding are involved in causing contractions of the uterus, bringing it back to its pre-pregnancy size and stopping post-birth bleeding. The contractions continue for up to 20 minutes after a feed.
Breastmilk is our human first food, but it is also a vast network of complex elements working together to protect mothers as well as our children.