Guidelines Dietary - Eat For Health

GUIDELINE 4Encourage, support and promote breastfeedingGuideline 4Encourage, support and promote breastfeeding.Summary• The World Health Organization states that ‘breastfeeding is an unequalled way ofproviding ideal food for the healthy growth and development of infants’. 871• Breast milk contains many unique compounds, including live cells, which provide allthe nutritional requirements to support growth and development of infants to around6 months of age.• Breastfeeding provides health benefits to infants including reduced risk of infection,asthma and atopic disease and sudden infant death syndrome. It contributes toimproved cognitive development and protects against obesity, hypertension and somechronic diseases in later life.• Benefits to mothers from breastfeeding include improved bonding with their infant,accelerated recovery from childbirth and progress towards a healthy body weight.Breastfeeding is also associated with reduced risk of some cancers.• Infants should be exclusively breastfed until around 6 months of age when solid foodsare introduced. Breastfeeding should be continued while solid foods are introduced until12 months of age and beyond, for as long as the mother and child desire.• Breastfeeding outcomes (including initiation rates and duration) are improved where themother has support and encouragement from the infant’s father, other family members,health workers, the hospital and the community.This chapter provides information on why breastfeeding is beneficial to the health ofthe infant and the mother, plus practical considerations for encouraging, supporting andpromoting breastfeeding.Guideline 4Encourage, support and promote breastfeedingNational Health and Medical Research Council87