Today is World Statistics Day!

All right, that's not precise. It only happens once every 5 years, and the next time will be in 2025. However, I love numbers, so this is a good excuse. In addition to my Lactation Consultant certificate, I have, among others, a B.Sc. in Mathematics. So in honor of this day, I'll share a few numbers about breastfeeding:

• Breastfeeding (even only once) is correlated with a 36% decrease in SIDS. Breastfeeding for 2 months is associated with a 50% decrease!

• Breastfeeding could possibly eliminate 72% of infant hospitalizations due to diarrhea, and 57% of hospitalizations from respiratory infections.

• Long term breastfeeding lowers obesity risks by 25%.

• Women who breastfeed for over 12 months cumulatively, have 26% decrease in breast cancer risk than non-breastfeeding women. For ovarion cancer, this decreases by 35%!

• Breastfeeding lowers type II Diabetes risk by 40%. The defense affect increases with breastfeeding duration.

The last statistic is the most important one:

Before birth, over 90% of Israeli women want to breastfeed. Yet 6 months postpartum, fewer than 55% of women are breastfeeding.

Why?

Here are some more numbers:

- The most common reason for breastfeeding cessation is pain - 96% of breastfeeding women report pain in the first days.

- The second most common reason is falsely perceived low milk supply.

- The third, and least common, is true deficit in milk supply.

I hope that I can make a difference in the numbers for those women who want to breastfeed. :)