HealthInfo West Coast-Te Tai Poutini
Overview of breastfeeding
Breast milk provides the best food for babies as they grow and is the only food and drink they need for the first six months of their life. Even after six months, you can continue breastfeeding your baby while introducing other foods.
Colostrum, which is the first milk you produce after birth, is the perfect food for your newborn. You make just a small amount of it, but it contains lots of antibodies, which help to protect your baby from infections, and prebiotics, which help your baby have healthy gut bacteria.
Breastfeeding benefits
Breastfeeding has many important benefits for mothers and babies.
For mothers it:
- helps you to bond with your baby
- can help you lose your baby weight
- gives you a good chance to rest and relax while you're feeding
- reduces your chances of getting breast and ovarian cancer
- is free and saves you time, as breastfeeds are ready to go!
For babies, breast milk:
- is the perfect food
- protects them from tummy bugs, ear, bladder and chest infections, wheezing and asthma
- reduces their chance of sudden unexpected death in infancy (SUDI)
- in the long term, protects them from diabetes, obesity and Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis.
Preparing to breastfeed
You can do several things while you're pregnant and straight after your baby is born to get ready to breastfeed.
- Talk to your midwife, GP or practice nurse about any questions you have about breastfeeding.
- Check out the help you can get from the West Coast Primary Health Organisation Breastfeeding Advocates. They offer free breastfeeding education sessions, breastfeeding support groups (pregnant women are welcome) and mother-to-mother breastfeeding peer counsellors.
- Look at the Ministry of Health's page on Breastfeeding: preparing during pregnancy. It includes a video of women talking about their breastfeeding experiences.
- Have skin-to-skin contact with your baby straight after they're born, giving them time to latch at your breast. It may take a wee while for them to do so, but that's OK.
There are some common problems women can have with breastfeeding. But if you run into any difficulties, your midwife can support you and help you to overcome them.
On the next page: Starting to breastfeed
Written by HealthInfo clinical advisers. Last reviewed February 2018.
SourcesReview key: HIBRF-24381
