Breast-feeding may decrease risk of infant death; reduced risk of infection, SIDS, injuries.(Women's Health)

Promoting breast feeding could prevent or delay about 720 postneonatal deaths every year in the United States, Dr. Aimin Chen and Dr. Walter J. Rogan said.

Breast-feeding is associated with a reduced risk of death not only from infection, but also from injury and sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), they reported.

In their study, there was a 21% reduced risk of postneonatal death even among briefly breast-fed infants compared with those who were never breast-fed. The finding does not necessarily represent a causal link, but the association is strong enough for health care providers to renew efforts to promote breast-feeding, especially among women of lower socioeconomic status (Pediatrics 113[5]:435-39, 2004).

"If more U.S. mothers can be persuaded to breast-feed, and indeed it is breast feeding that accounts for these benefits, then the United States might improve its poor …