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2024/12/11

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What says the research

“Breastfeeding is associated with long-term wellbeing including low risks of infectious diseases and non-communicable diseases such as asthma, cancer, autoimmune diseases and obesity during childhood. In recent years, important advances have been made in understanding the human breast milk (HBM) composition. Breast milk components such as, non-immune and immune cells and bioactive molecules, namely, cytokines/chemokines, lipids, hormones, and enzymes reportedly play many roles in breastfed newborns and in mothers, by diseases protection and shaping the immune system of the newborn. Bioactive components in HBM are also involved in tolerance and appropriate inflammatory response of breastfed infants if necessary.”

The importance of breastfeeding in low-income and middle-income countries is well recognised, but less consensus exists about its importance in high-income countries. In low-income and middle-income countries, only 37% of children younger than 6 months of age are exclusively breastfed. With few exceptions, breastfeeding duration is shorter in high-income countries than in those that are resource-poor. Our meta-analyses indicate protection against child infections and malocclusion, increases in intelligence, and probable reductions in overweight and diabetes. We did not find associations with allergic disorders such as asthma or with blood pressure or cholesterol, and we noted an increase in tooth decay with longer periods of breastfeeding. For nursing women, breastfeeding gave protection against breast cancer and it improved birth spacing, and it might also protect against ovarian cancer and type 2 diabetes. The scaling up of breastfeeding to a near universal level could prevent 823 000 annual deaths in children younger than 5 years and 20 000 annual deaths from breast cancer. Recent epidemiological and biological findings from during the past decade expand on the known benefits of breastfeeding for women and children, whether they are rich or poor.

What do parents know?

Most parents are aware of the overall beneficial impact of breastfeeding on their baby’s health. But few parents are aware that breastfeeding not only protects the child through the transfer of immunoglobulins and other immuno-competent factors, but that breast milk also helps their baby to strengthen and mature its immune system.

Breastfeeding not only strengthens the child’s immune system, but breast milk also contributes to the child’s development. Breastfeeding provides the child with many immuno-protective factors: specific (adapted to the mother’s and child’s environment) and non-specific (those present in the basic composition of breast milk from the beginning, such as IgA, cytokines, human oligosaccharides (about 200), tumour-killing proteins, and many others – the list is long (see below).

Moreover, breastfeeding builds and nourishes the child’s microbiota. Breast milk acts on the intestinal flora and mucous membranes, two important protective filters against pathogens and viruses. As researcher Lars A. Hanson wrote as early as 2004: Breastfeeding protects the baby, and in addition, it nourishes him. Major components of human milk are not primarily for nutrition, but for host defense (see Immunobiology of Human Milk – How Breastfeeding protects babies, 2004) .

Knowledge and research into the dynamic, protective and physiological-immune role of breast milk reveal its important role and lasting impact on the health of the breastfed child – the health of the future adult.

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