Let’s Celebrate The Amazing Benefits Of Breastfeeding

Let’s Celebrate The Amazing Benefits Of Breastfeeding

Throughout August, National Breastfeeding Month, the world is celebrating the amazing benefits of breastfeeding, while continuing to build awareness and ensure women have the support they need to breastfeed.

Breastfeeding provides the best source of nutrition for most infants. Moreover, it can also reduce the risk of certain health conditions for both mothers and infants.

Research has shown that breastfeeding provides many health benefits for a mother and her baby. But it also can be challenging to manage breastfeeding in today’s hurried world. Learning all you can before giving birth can help—the decision to breastfeed is ultimately a personal one. If you are pregnant or planning to become pregnant, please schedule your appointment with one of our OBGYN in Snellville, GA

 

Why Does Breastfeeding Matter?

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that most infants be exclusively breastfed during the first 6 months with continued breastfeeding alongside an introduction to safe complementary foods for 1 year or longer.

Infants who are breastfed commonly have reduced risks of:

  • Asthma.
  • Type 1 diabetes.
  • Obesity.
  • Acute otitis media (ear infections).
  • Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).
  • Gastrointestinal infections (diarrhea/vomiting).
  • Severe lower respiratory disease.
  • Necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) for preterm infants external icon.

The evidence is clear—breastfeeding saves lives by protecting newborns from illnesses and infections. As the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found, if babies were breastfed for the first 6 months, over 820,000 lives could be saved annually.

A world in which women consistently receive support to breastfeed is a world in which children and women thrive. Although most infants receive some breastmilk, most are not exclusively breastfeeding as recommended. Enabling women to breastfeed as long as they desire would result in less disease and illness, as breastfeeding plays a vital protective role in infant health. Fewer children would die from pneumonia and diarrhea—two of the leading causes of child mortality globally.

And it is not just babies who benefit from breastfeeding. When a mother breastfeeds, she reduces her risk of developing breast cancer, ovarian cancer, and heart disease.

Even with all these known benefits, there is still a lack of support for breastfeeding women around the world. 

How You Can Help Spread Awareness

This year let us commit to creating a world where every mother has the support she needs to breastfeed.

Here is what you can do: 

  1. Spread awareness for women to breastfeed anytime, anywhere.
  2. Add an “I Support Breastfeeding” Frame to your Facebook Profile.
  3. Share your breastfeeding experience and tell us who supported you on your breastfeeding journey, or who you supported to reach their breastfeeding goals.

No one breastfeeds alone—and we all have a role to play in supporting breastfeeding. Thank you for joining us to help mothers and babies everywhere to have a healthy beginning.

Work with your provider to ensure a health pre- and post-pregnancy. Make an appointment with Gwinnett OB-GYN obstetrical care today.

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