Breastfeeding - best for your baby and best for you

It is easy to see why breast milk is the best possible start for your baby. After all it was designed by Mother Nature to contain everything your baby will need to thrive for the first six months, and it is also the perfect complement to first foods for the first year and beyond.

As well as breast milk being free, convenient, sterile and always at the right temperature, breastfeeding brings many health benefits for both mum and baby.

Here are just a few:

• It is easy for your baby to digest.

• It is packed full of antibodies that help protect against infections.

• Breast fed babies are less likely to develop asthma and eczema.

• Women who breastfeed are less likely to develop ovarian and breast cancers and osteoporosis.

• Breastfeeding uses up about an extra 800cals a day so it can help reduced some of the weight put on in pregnancy.

Breastfeeding sometimes is not as easy as nature intended. It's a skill that can take a bit of time to learn, but don't be afraid to ask for help and advice from your midwife, health visitor or breastfeeding counsellor if you are worried. Just relax and stick with it, and in no time at all you will be enjoying one of the best kinds of job satisfaction there is.

Many mothers today have very busy lives and helping them continue to breastfeed for as long as possible is very important. It may help you to maintain breastfeeding by expressing your milk from time to time, and storing to feed from a bottle when you can't be there to feed your baby. This could allow you to return to work or have a night out from time to time.

The Tommee Tippee Closer to Nature range is a breastfeeding support system that can help mothers breastfeed for longer by helping baby to move between breast and bottle - and back again - effortlessly.

Bottle feeding

There is no getting away from the fact that breastfeeding is best for babies, and many health care professionals will advise mums to have a go. However many mums may wish to introduce some form of bottle feeding for their babies, whether it's to give expressed breast milk, a combination of both breast milk and formula milk or just formula milk on its own.

Bottle feeding can allow another family member to get involved in the feeding of the baby, although there are many other things that they can get involved in, like bathing. You may also to choose to bottle feed if you are returning to work, and the baby will be cared for by someone else.

The Tommee Tippee Closer to Nature teat has been designed to mimic the natural flex, feel and movement of a mum's breast, helping baby move between breast and bottle effortlessly.

So, when it comes to baby feeding, Tommee Tippee has the products to help you, whatever choice you make.