Breastfeeding provides a unique emotional experience for the nursing mother and the baby. Breastfeeding is one parenting behavior that only the mother can do for her baby, creating a unique and powerful physical and emotional connection. Breastfeeding benefits baby as well as the mother in many ways:

• Helps in postpartum uterine involution:

During pregnancy and delivery a mother’s body undergoes several changes. Mothers who breastfeed, recover from childbirth quickly and easily. The hormones released during breastfeeding help uterus return to its normal size quickly and can thus reduce postpartum bleeding.

• Benefits child spacing:

During lactation the hormones secreted delay ovulation. It therefore acts as a natural contraceptive. However the duration for which a woman remains infertile depends on her baby’s nursing pattern and her own body’s response.

• Reduces the risk of breast cancer:

Various studies have shown women who breastfeed reduce the risk of developing breast cancer. The reduction in cancer risk comes in proportion to the cumulative lifetime duration of breastfeeding. More months or years a mother breast feeds, lower is her risk of breast cancer.

• Reduces the risk of ovarian and uterine cancer:

During lactation ovulation is delayed, this contributes in lowering the risk of ovarian cancer. Many studies have shown that women who breast feed a child for at least 13 months have 63 percent less chance of developing tumor. There is a significant reduction in risk of endometrial cancer in breastfeeding women.

• Promotes postpartum weight loss:

Breast feed mothers show significantly more fat loss postpartum when compared with formula feeding mothers. Women who breast feed have improved sugar control and those with type 1 diabetes prior to their pregnancies tend to need less insulin while they breastfeed due to their reduced sugar levels.

• Emotional Benefits:

Breastfeeding releases beneficial hormones act as natural tranquilizers. Studies show that mothers who establish a successful breastfeeding habit show less postpartum anxiety and depression than formula feeding mothers. Breastfeeding help in developing the precious emotional bond between the baby and mother.

Breastfeeding has great benefits and above all it gives the mother that her baby is receiving complete, uncontaminated and highly nutritive diet.