Breastfeeding Facts

Breast milk is perfectly designed for growing human babies. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends breast milk the entire first year of your baby's life. Breast milk is the only food your baby needs the first four to six months of life.

Breast Milk is the Best Food for Infants and Small Children:

• Breast milk has special ingredients that promote brain growth and IQ
• Reduces risk of allergic reactions
• Provides human babies with the most easily digested food
• Promotes healthy growth and development
• Causes better craniofacial development, straighter teeth and fewer speech impediments
• Protects against cancer and diabetes
• Transmits mother's immunities
• Leads to fewer ear and respiratory infections
• May protect against crib death (SIDS)
• Yields health benefits that last a lifetime
• Changes throughout the feed and also throughout the duration of nursing to meet the baby's specific needs at a given time

Breastfeeding is Best for Mothers:

• Releases prolactin, the calming, "mothering" hormone
• May delay ovulation and menstruation
• Protects against breast and ovarian cancer
• Helps uterus get back to pre-pregnancy size and shape
• Allows mothers to miss fewer work or school days due to baby's illness
• Creates a special time for mother-baby bonding
• Saves time preparing bottles
• Permits mother to get more sleep at night (if baby shares the bed)

Breastfeeding is Best for Families:

• Saves money
• Leads to a healthier baby and mother
• Allows mother to spend more time with entire family
• Can offer a special bonding time for siblings and fathers, too
• Makes for easier traveling
• Makes comforting baby easier--less crying

Breastfeeding is Best for the World:

• Uses a natural resource
• Protects the environment--no packaging, no plastics, no waste
• Yields a healthier work force for the future
• Offers an answer to world hunger and high infant mortality