Population Health and Informed Feeding Decisions

Abstract Breastfeeding is a women’s and a children’s health issue. Disruption of breastfeeding is associated with higher rates of maternal breast and ovarian cancer, diabetes, hypertension, myocardial infarction, and stroke. For the child, not being breastfed is associated with higher rates of infectious morbidity, childhood leukemia, sudden infant death syndrome, and necrotizing enterocolitis, as well as higher rates of obesity and diabetes and lower IQ. There must be a transition from “population health considerations” to the individual. Informing families about the health importance of breastfeeding is essential, but not sufficient, to affect infant feeding decisions and behavior. Provider–patient communication along with application of social cognitive theory can facilitate discussion and focus attention on the multiple factors affecting infant feeding and related decisions. Health care professionals and communities should collaborate to make breastfeeding easier for mothers and families, enabling more mothers and infants to breastfeed.