Breastfeeding

Breastfeeding provides babies with all the nutrients they need to grow and for their immune system to develop fully. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends that breast milk be the exclusive food for newborn babies up to 6 months of age, and that up to 2 years old they feed with a combination of it with foods suitable and nutritious for their age1.

Breastfeeding helps prevent gastrointestinal and respiratory infections, obesity, diabetes, leukemia, allergies, childhood cancer, hypertension and high cholesterol. Likewise, it can help prevent infection with COVID-19 infection.

Breastfeeding not only benefits babies but also mothers, since in the short term it helps their physical recovery, for example, it decreases the risk of bleeding after birth and reduces the risk of postpartum depression.

In the long term, it helps to reduce the chances of developing ovarian cancer, breast cancer, type II diabetes, hypertension, heart attacks, anemia and osteoporosis.