Benefits of Breastfeeding

Breastfeeding is universally endorsed by the world’s health and scientific organizations as the best way of feeding infants.1 to 3 Years of research have shed light on the vast array of benefits not only for children but also for mothers and society.

For children, breastfeeding supports optimal development and protects against acute and chronic illness. For mothers, breastfeeding helps with recovery from pregnancy and childbirth and provides lifelong health advantages. For society, breastfeeding provides a range of economic and environmental rewards.

Benefits for Children

Breastfeeding offers advantages for children that cannot be duplicated by any other form of feeding. The benefits of breastfeeding begin from the first moments after childbirth and last for many years after breastfeeding ends.

Compared with formula-fed children, those who are breastfed are healthier and have fewer symptoms and shorter illnesses when they do get sick.

Breastfed children:

• score higher on cognitive and IQ tests at school age, and also on tests of visual activity
• have a lower incidence of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS)
• are less likely to suffer from infectious illnesses and their symptoms
• have a lower risk of the two most common inflammatory bowel diseases (Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis)
• suffer less often from some forms of cancer (e.g., Hodgkin’s disease,10 childhood leukemia)
• have a lower risk of juvenile onset diabetes, if they have a family history of the disease and are breastfed exclusively for at least 4 months
• are significantly protected against asthma and eczema, if at risk for allergic disorders and exclusively
• breastfed for at least 4 months
• may have a lower risk of obesity in childhood and in adolescence
• have fewer cavities and are less likely to require braces

Breastfeeding provides benefits not just for full-term infants but also for premature and low birth-weight infants. Compared with premature infants who receive human milk, those who receive formula have future IQs that are 8–15 points lower.

For premature infants, human milk:

• significantly shortens length of hospital stay
• reduces hospital costs
• hastens brainstem maturation
• reduces the risk of life-threatening disease of the gastrointestinal system and other infectious diseases

Benefits for Mothers

• Breastfeeding offers a range of benefits for mothers as well as their children.
• Women who have breastfed are less likely to develop ovarian and premenopausal breast cancers. The more months a woman has spent breastfeeding, the greater the beneficial effect.
• Breastfeeding reduces osteoporosis.
• Breastfeeding mothers enjoy a quicker recovery after childbirth, with reduced risk of postpartum bleeding.
• Mothers who breastfeed are more likely to return to their prepregnancy weight than mothers who formula feed.16 Breastfeeding reduces the risk for long-term obesity.
• Exclusive breastfeeding may reduce the risk of anemia by delaying the return of the menstrual cycle for 20 to 30 weeks.
• Exclusive breastfeeding for the first 6 months postpartum, in the absence of menses, is 98 percent effective in preventing pregnancy.
• Breastfeeding mothers are reported to be more confident and less anxious than bottle-feeding mothers.
• Breastfeeding contributes to feelings of attachment between a mother and her child.

Benefits for Society

• Breastfeeding offers society not only improved health of children and mothers but also economic and environmental benefits.
• Breastfeeding reduces the need for costly health services that must be paid for by insurers, government agencies, or families.
• Breastfeeding reduces the number of sick days that families must use to care for their sick children.
• The estimated cost of artificial feeding is four times that of breastfeeding
• Concentrated and ready-to-feed formulas are even more expensive than powdered formula. The cost of artificial feeding has increased steadily over the last 10 years.
• Electricity or fuel are consumed in the preparation of infant formula.
• Breastfeeding requires no packaging, and its production does not harm the environment.

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