Breastfeeding is beneficial for both mothers and babies. Here you will find compelling reasons to breastfeed your baby.

Benefits to Baby

  • Breastfeeding is the most natural and nutritious way to encourage your baby's development.
  • Research shows that breastfed infants have fewer illnesses and milder effects when illness does occur.
  • Studies show that breastfed babies have fewer ear and diarrheal infections.
  • Breastfed preterm babies tend to have a higher IQ than their formula-fed peers.
  • Breastfeeding offers babies emotional security because the skin-to-skin contact assists in reducing the stress babies experience as they enter the world from the safety of the womb.
  • The activity of sucking at the breast while breastfeeding enhances the baby's development of oral muscles and facial bones.
  • Breastfed babies are less likely to develop respiratory infections, childhood diabetes and childhood lymphoma.
  • Babies who are breastfed for less than six months have seven times the incidence of allergies as those who are breastfed longer than six months.
  • Babies who are breastfed are 10 times less likely to be admitted to the hospital during the first year.
  • Breastfeeding for one year or longer reduces the risk of diabetes by 50%.
  • Babies who are exclusively breastfed for at least six months have a reduced risk of cancer before the age of 15.
  • Breastfed babies are one-third less likely to die of SIDS.
  • Breastfed children are four times less likely to contract the infections that cause meningitis.
  • Vitamin A deficiency is reduced by breastfeeding.
  • Both infants and mothers with genetic conditions can reap the benefits of breastfeeding.

Benefits of Breast Milk

  • Neither the nutrients found in breast milk nor the special benefits these nutrients provide can be duplicated by any supplement.
  • Colostrum is the perfect starter food for babies. It is found in breasts during pregnancy and begins to change into mature milk a few days after baby's birth. Colostrum provides baby with an unmatched immunity against bacteria and viruses.
  • Colostrum acts as a natural laxative for clearing baby's intestine, thus decreasing chances of jaundice.
  • Breast milk is a unique combination of fats, sugars, minerals, proteins, vitamins and enzymes -- all customized to promote brain and body growth for an infant.
  • Breast milk is always fresh, perfectly clean, just the right temperature, instantly available and the most nutritious feeding system for the lowest cost.

Benefits to Mother

  • The ongoing production of milk in the mother burns calories, helping in weight loss after pregnancy.
  • The milk-producing hormone, prolactin, is a wonderful by-product of breastfeeding. Called the "mothering hormone," prolactin has a relaxing effect on mother and stimulates maternal instincts.
  • Women who breastfeed reduce their chances of pre-menopausal breast cancer, cervical cancer and osteoporosis.
  • Breastfeeding demands lower expenditures of mom's energy than does artificial feeding.
  • For every 1000 babies born in the U.S. each year, four die because they are not breastfed.

Research Articles that Support Breastfeeding

Following is a partial bibliography of articles in support of breastfeeding. A complete outline of research conducted in support of breastfeeding is too numerous to list here.

K.E. Brock et al., "Sexual, Reproductive and Contraceptive Risk Factors for Carcinoma-in-Situ for the Uterine Cervix," Medical Journal of Australia 160 (1989): 125-130.

S.R. Cummings and J.L. Kelsey, "Epidemiology of Osteoporosis and Osteoporotic Fractures,"Epidemiologic Review 7 (1986): 178-203.

M.K. Davis et al., "Infant feeding and childhood cancer,"Lancet (1988): 365-68.

D.M. Layde et al., "The Independent Association of Parity, Age at First Full-Term Pregnancy and Duration of Breastfeeding with the Risk of Breast Cancer," Journal of Clinical Epidemiology 42 (1989): 763-773.

E.J. Mayer et al., "Reduced risk of IDDM among breastfed children," Diabetes 37 (1988): 1625-1632.

F.E. Mallot et al., "Breastfeeding reduces incidence of hospital admissions for infections in infants," Pediatrics 25 (1980): 1121-1124.

E.A. Mitchell et al., "Cot death supplement: results from the first year of the New Zealand cot death study," New Zealand Medical Journal 104 (1991): 71-76.

F.M. Stevens et al., "Decreasing Incidence of Coeliac Disease," Archives of Diseases in Childhood 62 (1987): 465-468.

J.H. Strimas and D.S. Chi, "Significance of IgE Level in Amniotic Fluid and Cord Blood for the Prediction of Allergy, " Annals of Allergy 61 (1988): 133-136.

A.K. Takala et al., "Risk Factors of Invasive Hemophilus Influenzae Type B Disease," Journal of Pediatrics 115 (1989): 694-701.

C. Van den Boggard et al., "The Relationship between breastfeeding and early childhood morbidity in a general population," Family Med 23 (1991): 510-515.

K. Yoo et al., "Independent protective effect of lactation against breast cancer: A case-control study in Japan," (1988): 1625-1632.

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