Health Benefits of Breastfeeding for Mum and Baby
Breastfeeding provides your baby with the best start in life. Research shows that many of the benefits are lifelong. Feeding your baby breast milk exclusively for the first six months offers the most benefit. Should you only be able to feed your baby for a short time, any amount is good for your baby. The longer you breastfeed, the longer the protection lasts and the greater the benefits.
Breastfeeding reduces your baby's risk of:
- infections, with fewer visits to hospital as a result
- diarrhoea and vomiting, with fewer visits to hospital as a result
- sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS)
- childhood leukaemia
- type 2 diabetes
- obesity
- cardiovascular disease in adulthood
Giving nothing but breast milk is recommended for about the first six months (26 weeks) of your baby's life.
Breastfed babies may have better:
- neurological development.
Women who have breastfed are at lower risk of:
- breast cancer
- ovarian cancer
- osteoporosis
Myth
Artificial milk is almost the same as breast milk
Exploding the Myth:
Not true!
Every correction of a deficiency in artificial milk is advertised as an advance. Artificial milks contain no antibodies, no living cells, no enzymes, no hormones. They contain much more aluminium, manganese, cadmium, lead and iron than breast milk. They contain significantly more protein than breast milk. The proteins and fats are different from those in breast milk. Formulas do not vary from the beginning of the feed to the end of the feed, or from day 1 to day 7 to day 30, or from woman to woman, your breast milk is made by you to suit your baby. Artificial milk is made to suit every baby.