Breast milk offers infants unparalleled nutrition to fuel their growth and development.
It also provides a host of immune factors that can increase their resistance to common infections. Additionally, breast-fed infants may have a reduced risk of developing chronic diseases such as diabetes, allergies, and asthma. By breast-feeding her infant, a mother herself receives several health benefits, including less postpartum bleeding, a quicker return to prepregnancy weight, and a potentially decreased risk of ovarian and breast cancers. However, some new mothers hesitate to breast-feed due to concern about environmental chemicals in their breast milk. A review of the literature shows that data on chemicals in breast milk are limited at best.