Breastfeeding

More American women are breastfeeding their babies, according to a study released by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). From 2000 to 2008, the percentage of new mothers who breastfed their newborns rose from 70.3 percent to 74.6 percent. Although that's only a 4.2 increase, it's still a good sign. Also encouraging is the 9.9 percent rise in the number of American women who were breastfeeding at six months and the 7.4 percent rise in the number of who were breastfeeding at 12 months. However, it isn't known how many of those women were breastfeeding exclusively at six months. Research has shown that there are many contributing factors to the low rate of breastfeeding in the US. These factors include insufficient support for breastfeeding on maternity wards, forceful marketing techniques by formula companies, little to no paid maternity leaves, lack of nursing accommodations from employers, and negative social views towards breastfeeding.

Despite these barriers, breastfeeding offers a multitude of health benefits to both infant and mother and is an essential step in the process of growing a healthy baby. Breast milk is the perfect source of nutrition for a baby, it contains just the right balance of nutrients to help an infant grow into a strong and healthy child, with many different advantages which cannot be replicated by any laboratory formula. According to The World Health Organization (WHO) breastfeeding is recommended as the only form of food or drink until a baby reaches six months of age, and it adds that breastfeeding can be a supplemental food source for children up to two years old and older. Not only does breast milk give infants all the nutrients they need for healthy development, it also contains antibodies that help protect them from common illnesses such as pneumonia and diarrhea, the WHO says.

The first milk breasts produce during pregnancy is called colostrum, which is very high in protein fluid and fat-soluble vitamins