Breast milk: what is it composed of?

Breast milk is the ideal food for your baby because it always provides exactly the nutrients it needs. Read here how breast milk can protect your baby from infections and other diseases and how it differs from cow’s milk.
How is breast milk made?
During pregnancy, your body releases more of the hormones estrogen and progesterone. This causes the breast to grow so that breast milk can be produced later. Milk production then begins after the afterbirth due to the hormonal change. The level of the pregnancy hormones estrogen and progesterone decreases, instead your body produces more of the milk-forming hormone prolactin and thus starts the production of breast milk. The oxytocin produced in the brain also causes the milk ducts in your breast to contract in response to a sucking stimulus, releasing breast milk.
Breast milk during pregnancy?
Towards the end of pregnancy, the first milk, the so-called colostrum, forms. This early form of breast milk contains only little fat and sugar, but a particularly large number of important ingredients such as protein, vitamins and minerals that strengthen your baby’s immune system and thus protect it from diseases from birth. If you breastfeed your baby after birth, it will first get this foremilk for a few days. About the third day after birth, the production of the so-called mature breast milk begins.
Valuable breast milk
Mature breast milk consists mainly of water, but varies greatly in its exact composition. At the beginning of a breastfeed, for example, breast milk is very liquid to quench your baby’s thirst. The longer it suckles on a breast, the more fat the breast milk contains and thus the more filling it becomes.
In addition to the particularly healthy and easily digestible unsaturated, long-chain fatty acids (LCP), breast milk contains proteins that are easy for your baby to digest, such as casein and lactalbumin. Another important supplier of energy is milk sugar, the so-called lactose, which makes up about 90 percent of the carbohydrates contained in breast milk. The remaining 10 percent are oligosaccharides. They are food for the bacteria that ensure a healthy intestinal flora and thus protect your baby from infections. They also promote soft bowel movements.
How is breast milk different from cow’s milk?
The nutrients contained in breast milk are tailored to the needs of each baby. For example, the proteins contained in breast milk are easily digestible for the still immature gastrointestinal tract of babies and can be optimally utilized. Cow’s milk not only contains other proteins, but also a larger amount overall, which can affect the baby’s kidney function.
The mineral content is also adapted to the needs of the still young organism. For example, the iron contained in breast milk is bound with the help of the enzyme lactoferrin, which is not contained in cow’s milk. The result is that the iron contained in breast milk can be optimally utilized by the child’s body, which would not be the case if cow’s milk were given.
However, the most important reason why breast milk is superior to cow’s milk when it comes to feeding the baby is the antibodies it contains. The mother passes on the body’s own antibodies, so-called immunoglobulins, to the baby via the colostrum and later also the mature breast milk.