Breast milk is universal — always has been. Whether it’s a poor woman in Africa breastfeeding her baby or a busy career woman in New York City expressing her milk with a pump so she can feed her baby when she gets home from work, mothers everywhere value breast milk for the nutritional benefits it offers to their infants — and also for its other important health attributes. According to UNICEF, an agency of the United Nations, breastfeeding reduces the risk of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), childhood diabetes, heart disease, and obesity.
This August, the U.S. Breastfeeding Committee (USBC) is recognizing National Breastfeeding Month ( https://www.
usbreastfeeding.org/national-breastfeeding-month.html ), by highlighting the reasons why protecting, promoting, and supporting lactation is so important for the human life cycle.
Yet not so long ago, women in “modern” times thought of breast feeding as “primitive” and were more than happy to switch to formula and bottles. In the United States, new moms left the hospital armed with information about bottle feeding but with nary a word about breast feeding. It was as though it was a thing of the past.
But times have changed and in recent years, breast feeding has seen a resurgence now that people are more aware of how important it is for the health of infants. Currently, the World Health Organization (WHO) recommends exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months of life. The U.
S. Dietary Guidelines for Americans .
