Breastfeeding Myth Busters!

Myth 1: Women with small breasts produce less milk than women with large breasts.

• Fact: Milk supply is not a function of breast size. It is a function of supply and demand. The more you breast feed your child, The more milk you produce. Proper latching and frequent nursing will ensure that you produce enough to fulfil all your child’s needs.

Myth 2: Breastfeeding is painful.

• Fact: Breastfeeding can cause some tenderness only in the first few days as your body adjusts to it. This is temporary. Continuous pain is a sign of improper latching on and should be corrected.

Myth 3: A mother should stop breastfeeding if she is sick.

• Fact: For most common illness, women should continue to breastfeed during their illnesses. The baby needs the antibodies provided in breast milk.

Myth 4: Breastfed babies need iron supplements.

• Fact: The iron in breast milk is easily absorbed. Iron supplements are not usually needed for infants younger than six months.

Myth 5: A baby with diarrhea should stop breastfeeding.

• Fact: The best thing a mother can do for a sick infant is to continue breastfeeding.

How Breastfeeding can Help Achieve MDGs (Millenium Development Goals)

Breastfeeding can help Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger.

• Breastfeeding is a natural and low-cost way of feeding babies and children. It is affordable for everyone and does not burden household budgets compared to artificial feeding.

Breastfeeding can help Achieve universal primary education.

• Breastfeeding and good quality complementary foods significantly contribute to mental and cognitive development, and thus promote learning.

Breastfeeding can help Promote gender equality and empower women

• Breastfeeding is the great equaliser, giving every child a fair and best start in life. Breastfeeding is uniquely a right of women and they should be supported by society to breastfeed optimally.

Breastfeeding can help Reduce child mortality

• Infant mortality could be readily reduced by about 13% with improved breastfeeding practices alone, and 6% with improved complementary feeding. In addition, about 50-60% of under five mortality is linked to malnutrition, due to inadequate complementary foods and feeding following on poor breastfeeding practices.

Breastfeeding can help Improve maternal health

• Breastfeeding is associated with decreased maternal postpartum blood loss, breast cancer, ovarian cancer, endometrial cancer, and the likelihood of bone loss postmenopause. Breastfeeding also contributes to contraception and child spacing, reducing maternal risks of pregnancies too close together, for example anaemia.

Breastfeeding can help Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases

• Exclusive breastfeeding together with antiretroviral therapy for mothers and babies can significantly reduce the transmission of HIV from mother to child. More importantly, breastfeeding reduces the death rate in babies exposed to HIV, thus increasing the rate of HIV-free survival.

Breastfeeding can help Ensure environmental sustainability

• Breastfeeding entails less waste when compared to formula production involving the dairy, pharmaceutical, plastics and aluminium industries, and reduces the use of firewood and fossil fuels in the home. With breastfeeding we have a healthy, viable, non-polluting, non-resource intensive, sustainable and natural source of nutrition and sustenance.

Breastfeeding can help Develop a global partnership for development

• The Global Strategy for Infant and Young Child Feeding (GSIYCF) fosters multi-sectoral collaboration, and can build upon various partnerships for support of development through breastfeeding and complementary feeding programs.