Breastfeeding

 

According to the Australian Breastfeeding Association, breastfeeding:

• protects your baby from illness and infection
• provides the correct food for your growing baby
• aids the development of your baby’s eyesight, speech and intelligence
• promotes a special loving bond between mother and baby.

The World Health Organization recommends exclusive breastfeeding for six months, then introduction of complementary foods and continued breastfeeding thereafter. It is recommended that breastfeeding continue until 12 months of age and thereafter as long as mutually desired.

 

Our research
Breastfeeding has a beneficial effect on overall childhood development and has been specifically implicated in childhood physical and cognitive development. We have been looking at the possible role of breastfeeding in modulating mental health status through childhood and into adolescence.

 

Using data from the Raine Study, which initially recruited 2,979 mothers at 16 to 20 weeks in pregnancy and has followed these children since, mental health status was assessed by the Child Behaviour Checklist at ages two, six, eight, 10 and 14 years. Breastfeeding duration was included in the analysis along with other relevant factors including maternal factors such as age, education and marital status; pregnancy factors such as smoking, father living with family, life stress events; factors following birth including breastfeeding duration, postnatal depression; and infant factors such as gestational age and gender.

 

We found that breastfeeding for less than six months compared to six months or longer was a significantly predictor of adverse mental health status through childhood and into adolescence. In other analyses, this relationship was supported by the results showing that babies who were breastfed for less time had a 30 per cent increased risk of having an adverse mental health outcome through childhood and into adolescence. We concluded that breastfeeding for six months or longer may be a significant predictor of positive mental health outcomes throughout the developmental trajectory of childhood and early adolescence.