Breastfeeding and lactation
Starting and continuing breastfeeding, support, problems and donor milk.
Care topics 1
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Feeding a baby with milk from the mother's breast, usually directly from the breast. MedlinePlus says breastfeeding offers many benefits to the baby and may also help the mother's health, and advises...
Conditions 1
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Mastitis is inflammation of the breast, usually while a woman is breastfeeding. It may or may not involve infection. A WHO review says poor breastfeeding technique that leaves milk in the breast is...
Fronts 2
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Pages about medicines and vaccines given in pregnancy, at birth, after birth or to the baby. Each page says who receives it, the mother or the baby.
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Pages about helping a newborn stay warm, breathe and feed, from help with the first breaths to breastfeeding.
Interventions 2
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Help with breastfeeding from health workers, peers or programmes, offered before and after the birth. In 2025 the US Preventive Services Task Force recommended providing interventions or referrals...
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Milk donated by other mothers, pasteurised and given to very low birth weight babies when their own mother's milk is not enough. In the DoMINO trial in Ontario, Canada, babies who got donor milk did...
Technologies 1
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A breast pump is a device a breastfeeding woman uses to express (draw out) her milk. FDA regulates breast pumps as medical devices. The pump can also be used to keep up or increase milk supply or to...
Guidelines 3
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A 2022 policy statement on breastfeeding and human milk, published in the journal Pediatrics. This atlas lists it as a reference only and does not repeat its content.
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The 2025 statement from the US Preventive Services Task Force on primary care counselling to support breastfeeding. It recommends providing interventions or referrals during pregnancy and after birth.
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The 2017 WHO guideline, with 15 numbered recommendations, on supporting breastfeeding in hospitals, maternity facilities and other facilities that care for mothers and newborns. It updates the Ten...
Publications 1
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A review and meta-analysis in The Lancet in 2016 of what breastfeeding does for children and for mothers, with an estimate of how many deaths could be prevented if breastfeeding were near universal.
Studies 1
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A large trial in Belarus that tested whether a programme to promote and support breastfeeding in maternity hospitals changed how long and how exclusively mothers breastfed, and how their babies fared...
Organizations 2
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A research institute of the US National Institutes of Health that works on child health, pregnancy and development. It is listed as a funder of the NICHD Fetal Growth Studies and the Stillbirth...
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The United Nations agency for international public health.
Resources 2
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A global programme, started in 1991, in which maternity facilities follow ten steps to support breastfeeding. The 2018 guidance revised the Ten Steps for the first time since 1989 and asks countries...
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A 1981 international code, adopted by the World Health Assembly, about how breast-milk substitutes such as infant formula are marketed. This page records its history from WHO's publication page. It...