
Why breastfeed?
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.
Why is breastfeeding so good?
Breastfeeding has many important benefits for mothers and for 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:
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 Canterbury Breastfeeding Advocacy Service. It offers 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. Endorsed by Canterbury Breastfeeding Advocacy co-ordinator. Last reviewed February 2018.
Sources
The information in this section comes from the following sources, some of which may be clinically complex or not available to the general public.
BPAC, Sudden unexpected death in infancy: Where are we now?, retrieved March 2017.
Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health, Can breast feeding modify the adverse effects of smoking during pregnancy on the child’s cognitive development?, retrieved April 2017.
KidsHealth, Breastfeeding, retrieved April 2017.
Medsafe, Drug safety in lactation, retrieved April 2017.
New Zealand Formulary, Phenylephrine + pholcodine, retrieved April 2017.
New Zealand Formulary, Prescribing in breast-feeding, http://nzf.org.nz/nzf_152, retrieved April 2017.
Patient, Breast-feeding, retrieved April 2017.
Page reference: 416863
Review key: HIBRF-24381