Breastfeeding in the News – AAP Guidelines
I know that it can be overwhelming at times to try and search through all the available information in order to find what we are looking for. I am providing a link to the American Academy of Pediatrics Policy Statement on Breastfeeding and the Use of Human Milk. Allow yourself enough time to read this article as it is 11 pages long. Here is a bullet point list of some of the interesting facts that you can learn from this policy statement:
- Important health benefits of breastfeeding and lactation are are numerous for mothers. Some of the benefits include decreased postpartum bleeding and more rapid uterine involution attributable to increased concentrations of oxytocin, earlier return to prepregnancy weight, decreased risk of breast cancer, decreased risk of ovarian cancer.
- Health Outcomes to the baby – Some studies suggest decreased rates of sudden infant death syndrome in the first year of life and reduction in incidence of insulin-dependent (type 1) and non–insulin-dependent (type 2) diabetes mellitus, lymphoma, leukemia, and Hodgkin disease, overweight and obesity, hypercholesterolemia, and asthma in older children and adults who were breastfed, compared with individuals who were not breastfed.
- It is the role of the AAP to promote, support and protect breastfeeding enthusiastically. In consideration of the extensively published evidence for improved health and developmental outcomes in breastfed infants and their mothers, a strong position on behalf of breastfeeding is warranted.
- Breastfeeding should be promoted as a cultural norm and encourage family and societal support for breastfeeding.
In the interest of this blog, I have taken some of the information from this article and paraphrased it. Please check out this link for the full article as well as a complete list of references.