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The benefits to the mothers who breastfeed are essential. Some of these include: quicker bone remineralization and longer intervals between births (allowing for less mortality). They are at reduced risk for breast and ovarian cancer, osteoporosis, and coronary heart disease.
In Republic of Malawi Africa, mothers infected with HIV who breastfed their babies were less likely to die, along with their children (Taha, 2006).

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The benefits to children who are breastfed is extensive. Some of these include enhanced neurological development, 13% reduction in type-2 diabetes, and less likelihood to die of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). They are less likely to develop many illnesses and allergies. They receive passive immunity from their mother.
In studies in Zambia and Bolivia, breastfeeding helps prevent hypoglycemia and hypothermia in newborn babies. In developing countries, these conditions contribute to high rates of neonatal deaths (Huffman, S. L., Zehner, E. R., & Victora, C., 2001).

Breastfeeding is shown to increase intelligence in children.

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In the United States, the act of breastfeeding saves $3.37 billion annually. Formula alone costs the US  a projected amount of $70.6 billion annually.
Breastfeeding saved Australia $9 million annually and The Netherlands €50 million.
In the United Kingdom, it was estimated that £89 million is spent annually on four diseases that can be reduced by breastfeeding.
Not breastfeeding is associated with lower intelligence and economic losses of about $302 billion annually or 0.49% of world gross national income”

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4. Short video about the benefits of breastfeeding

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4. Short video about the benefits of breastfeeding

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The leading reason in the United States is the mother returning to work. At work mothers feel it is too tiring, impractical, and intense. According to Rollins et al. (2016), “Although nearly all countries have maternity protection legislation, only 98 (53%) of 185 countries meet the International Labour Organization’s 14-week minimal standard” (p. 493). Another factor is lactation. Many mothers feel there baby is having trouble sucking or latching; it was painful for the mother; and the breasts were overfull. Often they feel they have inadequate support from family and healthcare providers. Other reasons are that it was inconvenient or they wanted someone else to feed the baby. Often mothers feel their baby is not getting enough milk or gaining enough weight.
In Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, the biggest risk factor for the discontinuation of breastfeeding was the mother delivering her baby via cesarean section (Shawky, S., & Abalkhail, B. A., 2003).
Click the picture below to make it bigger.

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Fu, Icy, et al. “Professional Breastfeeding Support for First-Time Mothers: a Multicentre Cluster Randomised Controlled Trial.” BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics & Gynaecology, vol. 121, no. 13, 2014, pp. 1673–1683., doi:10.1111/1471-0528.12884.

Huffman, S. L., Zehner, E. R., & Victora, C. (2001). Can improvements in breast-feeding practices reduce neonatal mortality in developing countries? Midwifery,17(2), 80-92. doi:10.1054/midw.2001.0253

Rollins, N. C., Bhandari, N., Hajeebhoy, N., Horton, S., Lutter, C. K., Martines, J. C., . . . Victora, C. G. (2016). Why invest, and what it will take to improve breastfeeding practices? The Lancet,387(10017), 491-504. doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(15)01044-2

Shawky, S., & Abalkhail, B. A. (2003). Maternal factors associated with the duration of breast feeding in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Paediatric and Perinatal Epidemiology,17(1), 91-96. doi:10.1046/j.1365-3016.2003.00468.x

Sunanda, B, and Sabitha Nayak. “A Descriptive Study to Identify the Breastfeeding Problems among Postnatal Mothers in Justice K.S. Hegde Hospital, Mangalore.” International Journal of Nursing Education, vol. 9, no. 3, 2017, p. 50., doi:10.5958/0974-9357.2017.00070.8.

Taha, T. E., Kumwenda, N. I., Hoover, D. R., Kafulafula, G., Fiscus, S. A., Nkhoma, C., . . . Broadhead, R. L. (2006, July 10). The impact of breastfeeding on the health of HIV-positive mothers and their children in sub-Saharan Africa. Retrieved from https://www.scielosp.org/scielo.php?pid=S0042-96862006000700016&script=sci_arttext&tlng=en

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Support from the healthcare team is essential. The nurse and lactation consultant should educate the mother before she leaves the hospital. Home visit and telephone calls from these healthcare providers would also be extremely effective according to a study in Hong Kong (Fu, 2014).
Support from the family is significant because encouragement has shown to aid women in the continuation of breastfeeding. Mothers can also obtain a lot of education form their own mothers (Sunanda, 2017). The workplace should provide lactation rooms and nursing breaks (Rollins et al., 2016).

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7. A new challenge to breastfeeding - an article

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7. A new challenge to breastfeeding - an article

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This new article talks about a new challenge to breastfeeding mothers. Some women have medications they need to take and are told they cannot breastfeed if they are taking these medications. This article talks about how a lot of the medications women are taking are actually safe to take while breastfeeding.

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New research has found that mothers may be forgoing medication they need in order to breastfeed their babies. LightField Studios/Shutterstock

The challenges many new mothers overcome to breastfeed their babies are well documented. Despite a public health system in the UK that promotes breastfeeding, many do not have access to the support that enables them to do it. Every day, services are being cut, public attitudes are negative, and this is exacerbated by a culture that does not really understand how breastfeeding works and how best to support it.

Many women for whom breastfeeding is going well are told they cannot breastfeed while taking medication. In some case, this is perfectly justified - and women who are breastfeeding should always seek professional advice before taking any medication. But research has shown that many medications are safe to take while breastfeeding. Despite this, some mothers are told that they must stop breastfeeding their baby when prescribed a new treatment, even when that treatment actually poses no risk to either them or their baby.

For our new report, commissioned by the Breastfeeding Network, we explored the experiences of 444 mothers who had been prescribed a medication. Each of these mothers had contacted the charity's pharmacist-led Drugs in Breastmilk advice service or accessed its online factsheets for specific medications between August 2017 and August 2018. Set up to counter inaccurate advice about breastfeeding while on medication, the network estimates the service responds to 10,000 queries a year. It is the only independent service dedicated to offering this advice in the UK.

Over the counter advice

We found that the majority of queries received by the charity concerned medications that mothers had been prescribed to take while breastfeeding. The vast majority of these women had been told to stop breastfeeding, or not given any information at all. Most women sought advice after being prescribed common medications such as antibiotics or antidepressants, or wanting to take an over the counter medicine such as ibuprofen or cough medicine. It wasn't as if they had been prescribed a rare drug that medical professionals might not be expected to have up to date knowledge on.

Of particular concern was that many mothers told us that when they were advised by a medical professional that they couldn't take a medication, their decision was not to stop breastfeeding. Instead, they explained that if they had not been correctly advised by the service they would have refused to take the prescribed treatment.

Some felt that they were being forced to make a choice between their baby's health and their own, and decided that for them breastfeeding was more important. Others simply wanted to continue because they enjoyed breastfeeding. Many talked about preferring to experience the symptoms of their illness, or delay a procedure, rather than stop breastfeeding their baby.

But the women in our research were the lucky ones. They knew about the service and could receive the information they needed to both take the medication and carry on breastfeeding. Based on the volume of other incorrect information the women we spoke to were receiving, we believe that many mothers who do not know about the service may be stopping breastfeeding unnecessarily after receiving incorrect advice.

Victoria Stakh/Shutterstock

We have written before about how women often do not get the support they need to consider all options when they encounter a physiological breastfeeding issue. When it comes to medications, the issue is not a lack of information. Published research exists regarding the safety of a range of medications, yet this information is largely missing from medical training.

Some medics work on the basis that during pregnancy certain medications are known to be harmful to the developing baby. But the placenta and breast are very different organs. Often medications can't get into breastmilk, and if they do the level in milk is so low that it would be no harm to the baby, or, in terms of health risks, the baby is still better off being breastfed than not.

Professional support

Our research also found that some health professionals underestimate the importance of breastfeeding to women. Many women recalled how they felt dismissed by health professionals, who simply recommended formula feeding, with little consideration as to whether the woman herself wanted to stop breastfeeding.

We asked women how they felt before and after they had received advice from the service and the impact was stark. Among other things, they felt less anxious, more confident and more informed. For some, this was due to relief at being able to continue breastfeeding. For others, it was because they felt that someone had finally listened to them. Even in the small number of cases when women were told that unfortunately their medication was unsuitable for breastfeeding, their anxiety was also reduced because somebody listened.

We know that breastfeeding protects the health of mothers and infants yet some medical professionals are giving incorrect information - or simply a lack of information - to many thousands of women a year. This is yet another example of how the UK government promotes breastfeeding yet does not protect breastfeeding women and it's time this changed. Medical professionals need in-depth evidenced-based education, training and resources to accurately advise those mothers who are prescribed medication.

If you are a mother with a query about breastfeeding and medications, you can find information on the Breastfeeding Network website. Though we do recommend that you speak to your doctor about any specific health issue, the Drugs in Breastmilk service can help with any queries over prescribed medication. In any event, always seek advice from a doctor or pharmacist before taking medication while breastfeeding.

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Women face enough barriers to breastfeeding - incorrect medication advice should not be one of them

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The challenges many new mothers overcome to breastfeed their babies are well documented. Despite a public health system in the UK that promotes breastfeeding, many do not have access to the support that enables them to do it.