Any amount of breastfeeding is good for you and your baby. Benefits include lowering the risk of SIDS and reducing your child’s risk of certain illnesses and diseases like stomach viruses, colds and other respiratory illnesses, urinary tract infections, ear infections, and meningitis. Breastfed also lowers your risk of illnesses like type 2 diabetes, osteoporosis, rheumatoid arthritis, and obesity, as well as postpartum depression and breast and ovarian cancers.
IN THIS ARTICLE
- Benefits of breastfeeding for your baby
- Benefits of breastfeeding for moms
- How long do I need to breastfeed to get benefits?
- Where can I get help with breastfeeding?
Breastfed benefits extend well beyond basic nutrition. In addition to containing all the vitamins and nutrients your infant needs, breast milk is packed with disease-fighting substances that protect your baby from illness. Scientific studies have shown that breastfed is good for a mom’s health, too.
The Pediatrics recommends exclusively breastfed your baby (feeding only breast milk) for the first six months, then introducing complementary solid foods. The Pediatrics also supports continuing to breastfeed until 2 years old or beyond, if you and your child want to.
The good news: Any amount of breast milk is beneficial for your baby, whether you’re exclusively breastfed or supplementing with formula – and whether you’re nursing, pumping some breast milk, or exclusively pumping.
Here’s a look at important breastfed benefits for you and your baby.
Benefits of breastfeeding for your baby
Breastfed isn’t always blissful, especially not at first. A filmmaker and mother of two shares what she wants new moms to know.
Breastfed lowers the risk of SIDS
The peditricians recommend breastfed to help reduce the risk of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).
A large study found that any amount of breastfed – it doesn’t need to be exclusive – provides protection against SIDS. Breastfeeding for at least two months – exclusively or partially in combination with formula feeding – reduces the risk of SIDS by nearly half. Breastfeeding longer increases the protection.
Breast milk helps protect your baby from getting sick now
The best-established health benefit of breastfeeding is protecting your baby from a range of illnesses during the time that they’re drinking breast milk.
Antibodies in breast milk help your baby’s immune system guard against viruses and bacteria that cause disease. The main antibody in breast milk is called secretory immunoglobulin A (IgA). Secretory IgA is present in low quantities in newborns and high amounts in colostrum, the first milk your body produces. Over time, the level of antibodies in your breast milk decreases as your baby’s immune system makes more of its own antibodies.
What’s even more remarkable: Your body makes secretory IgA that’s specific to fighting germs you’ve been exposed to. Breast milk passes along this customized protection to your baby.
Stomach viruses, colds and other respiratory illnesses, urinary tract infections, ear infections, and meningitis occur less often in breastfed babies, and they’re less severe when they do happen. Even babies who are routinely around other children and exposed to more germs (in daycare, for example) get sick less often if they’re breastfed or given pumped breast milk.
Breastfeeding helps protect your child from getting sick later
Breastfeeding’s protection against illnesses and diseases lasts beyond when your baby is nursing or drinking pumped milk.
Studies have shown that breastfeeding can reduce a child’s risk of developing certain childhood cancers, such as leukemia. Scientists don’t know exactly how breast milk reduces the risk, but they think antibodies in breast milk may give a baby’s immune system a boost.
Breastfeeding may help your child avoid some diseases that strike later in life, such as type 1 and type 2 diabetes, high cholesterol, and inflammatory bowel disease. In fact, preemies given breast milk as babies are less likely to have high blood pressure by the time they’re teenagers. Researchers have also found that breastfeeding protects against Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis.
Breastfeeding may lower your baby’s risk of developing allergies and eczema
Babies born to families with a history of allergies garner some protection from allergies when compared to babies who are fed cow’s-milk formula or soy formula.
Studies show that babies who were at risk of allergy and exclusively breastfed for at least four months had a lower risk of milk allergy, eczema, and wheezing early in life. We don’t know yet if the protection is long term or if it also affects babies who are not at risk of allergies.
Breastfeeding may boost your child’s intelligence
Research suggests a connection between breastfeeding and cognitive development. Multiple studies on the relationship between breastfeeding and cognitive performance have found that breastfed children have higher scores on intelligence tests during childhood and adolescence than those who weren’t breastfed. This was the case even after factoring out differences in parenting, family environment, and the mothers’ IQ.
Breastfeeding benefits for brain development may be especially important for preemies. In one study, feeding breast milk to babies who were born very prematurely (before 30 weeks) for the first 28 days led to increased brain volume as well as stronger academic achievement and motor skills at age 7.
Experts say that the emotional bonding that takes place during breastfeeding probably contributes to some of the brainpower benefits, but nutrients in breast milk (especially fatty acids) may play the biggest role.
Benefits of breastfeeding for moms
Breastfeeding may reduce your risk of postpartum depression
Researchers continue to look at the relationship between breastfeeding and postpartum depression (PPD). Some studies report that breastfeeding may protect against or help women recover more quickly from symptoms of PPD.
Other studies show that you may be at higher risk of postpartum depression if you have breastfeeding problems or want to nurse but aren’t able to. One large study found that women who planned to breastfeed and went on to do so had the lowest risk of PPD, while the highest risk was found in women who had planned to breastfeed but did not.
You can be treated for depression and still nurse your baby. Talk to your healthcare provider about safe treatments for PPD while breastfeeding.
Breastfeeding can lower your stress levels
Many women report feeling relaxed while breastfeeding. That’s because nursing triggers the release of oxytocin – the “love hormone.” Oxytocin promotes nurturing and relaxation, with increased levels linked to lower blood pressure and lower levels of cortisol – the “stress hormone.” (Oxytocin released while nursing also helps your uterus contract after birth, resulting in less postpartum bleeding.)
Breastfeeding reduces your risk of some illnesses
Research indicates that breastfeeding may reduce a woman’s risk of developing:
- Type 2 diabetes
- Osteoporosis
- Rheumatoid arthritis
- Cardiovascular disease (thanks to lower blood pressure and cholesterol levels)
- Some cancers
The longer women breastfeed, the more they’re protected against breast and ovarian cancer. There’s also evidence that breastfeeding protects against endometrial cancer. For breast cancer, nursing for at least a year appears to have the most protective effect.
It’s not entirely clear how breastfeeding helps protect against breast cancer, but it may have to do with the structural changes in breast tissue caused by breastfeeding. Also, lactation suppresses the amount of estrogen your body produces. (Estrogen is a vital hormone, but it plays a role in fueling some cancers.) Researchers think the effect on ovarian cancer may be related to estrogen suppression as well.
Breastfeeding can help you lose weight and reduces your risk of obesity
When you breastfeed, you burn approximately 500 to 800 more calories a day Research shows that people who breastfeed have lower rates of obesity, which may be in part due to extra calories burned and increased postpartum weight loss.
How long do I need to breastfeed to get benefits?
It’s worth breastfeeding (or feeding your baby pumped milk) for any amount of time that you can manage. Your milk provides benefits from the get-go, including protecting your little one from illness.
If you get the flu or a flu shot while you’re breastfeeding, for example, your baby will receive antibodies from your breast milk before they’re old enough to receive a flu vaccine at 6 months old. (They would also receive protection if you got the flu or a flu shot while pregnant.)
Additionally, early research shows that antibodies produced by the COVID-19 vaccine make it into breast milk and are passed on to a nursing baby, potentially protecting them from COVID-19.
The benefits of breast milk increase the longer you breastfeed or pump. Exclusive breastfeeding – meaning no solid food, formula, or water – for at least six months seems to offer the most protection. Studies have found that babies who are exclusively breastfed for six months or longer had more protection against illness than babies who were breastfed for shorter time periods.
Because of the additional benefits for moms and babies, the peditricians encourages mothers to consider breastfeeding up to two years and beyond as a supplement to their child’s diet. Preliminary data reveal that breast milk in the second year of life continues to be a significant source of nutrients and antibodies for growing toddlers.
Research has also confirmed that breastfeeding for longer than 12 months has benefits for moms’ health, including reducing the risk of type 2 diabetes, hypertension, breast cancer, and ovarian cancer.
The challenge in the U.S. is that stigma, lack of support, structural racism, and economic barriers make it difficult – or impossible – for parents to breastfeed exclusively for 6 months and to continue to breastfeed for 2 years or more. Women who are Black, low-income, younger, or less educated are less likely to breastfeed.
Acknowledging that the world needs social and systemic changes to support breastfeeding parents, the peditricians recommends:
- Universal paid maternity leave
- The right to breastfeed in public
- Insurance coverage for lactation support and breast pumps
- On-site child care
- Universal workplace break time with a clean, private location for expressing milk
- The right to feed expressed milk
- The right to breastfeed in child care centers
- Lactation rooms in schools
Where can I get help with breastfeeding?
Breastfeeding is natural – but that doesn’t mean it’s easy. If possible, start preparing to breastfeed when you’re pregnant. Once your baby is born, don’t hesitate to contact your healthcare provider, your baby’s doctor, a postpartum doula, or a certified lactation consultant if you need help or support.
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