Benefits of breastfeeding

Abstract

Human milk, or breastmilk, is uniquely engineered for human infants, and is the biologically ‘natural’ way to feed infants. Breastfeeding, in comparison to feeding breastmilk substitutes such as infant formula, has numerous health benefits. Despite this, infant formula has been actively promoted as a product equivalent to breastmilk. Consequently, evidence describing the health advantages of breastmilk and breastfeeding needs to ‘argue the case’ for breastfeeding.