Breastfeeding - WHO | World Health Organization

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Overview

Breastfeeding is one of the most effective ways to ensure child health and survival. However, contrary to WHO recommendations, fewer than half of infants under 6 months old are exclusively breastfed.

Breastmilk is the ideal food for infants. It is safe, clean and contains antibodies which help protect against many common childhood illnesses. Breastmilk provides all the energy and nutrients that the infant needs for the first months of life, and it continues to provide up to half or more of a child’s nutritional needs during the second half of the first year, and up to one third during the second year of life.

Breastfed children perform better on intelligence tests, are less likely to be overweight or obese and less prone to diabetes later in life. Women who breastfeed also have a reduced risk of breast and ovarian cancers.

Inappropriate marketing of breast-milk substitutes continues to undermine efforts to improve breastfeeding rates and duration worldwide.

Learn about Nutrition and Food Safety and COVID-19 Recommendations

WHO and UNICEF recommend that children initiate breastfeeding within the first hour of birth and be exclusively breastfed for the first 6 months of life – meaning no other foods or liquids are provided, including water.

Infants should be breastfed on demand – that is as often as the child wants, day and night. No bottles, teats or pacifiers should be used.

From the age of 6 months, children should begin eating safe and adequate complementary foods while continuing to breastfeed for up to two years of age or beyond.

WHO Response

WHO actively promotes breastfeeding as the best source of nourishment for infants and young children, and is working to increase the rate of exclusive breastfeeding for the first 6 months up to at least 50% by 2025.

WHO and UNICEF created the Global Breastfeeding Collective to rally political, legal, financial, and public support for breastfeeding. The Collective brings together implementers and donors from governments, philanthropies, international organizations, and civil society.

WHO’s Network for Global Monitoring and Support for Implementation of the International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes, also known as NetCode, works to ensure that breast-milk substitutes are not marketed inappropriately.

Additionally, WHO provides training courses for health workers to provide skilled support to breastfeeding mothers, help them overcome problems, and monitor the growth of children.

Fact sheets

• Infant and young child feeding
• Malnutrition
• Newborns: improving survival and well-being

Questions and answers

• Up to what age can a baby stay well nourished by just being breastfed?
• Q&A on COVID-19 and breastfeeding
• 5 keys to a healthy diet

Databases and tools

• e-Library of Evidence for Nutrition Actions (eLENA)
• Nutrition Landscape Information System (NLiS)
• Ten steps to successful breastfeeding
• WHO global targets tracking

Resolutions and decisions

• WHA73(26) Maternal, infant and young child nutrition
• WHA71.9 Infant and young child feeding
• WHA69.8 United Nations Decade of Action on Nutrition (2016–2025)
• WHA 69.9 Ending inappropriate promotion of foods for infants and young child

Technical work

• Food and Nutrition Actions in Health Systems
• Global Breastfeeding Collective
• Newborn health
• Nutrition and Food Safety
• Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent Health, and Ageing

News

All → 4 August 2025 Joint News Release

On World Breastfeeding Week, countries urged to invest in health systems and support breastfeeding mothers

1 August 2025 Joint News Release

Breastfeeding in Indonesia on the rise, but mothers need more support

18 June 2025 Departmental update

Equity and health: the inclusion of pregnant and breastfeeding women in clinical trials

31 July 2024 Statement

On World Breastfeeding Week, UNICEF and WHO call for equal access to breastfeeding support

Campaign

World Breastfeeding Week - 1 to 7 August

Our work

Measuring child growth through data

Promoting baby-friendly hospitals

Events

All →

Building healthcare systems that truly support breastfeeding: new tools for sustainable change

5 – 6 August 2025 2025

World Breastfeeding Week 2025  – Invest in breastfeeding, invest in the future

1 – 7 August 2025

From assessment to action: Implementing WBTi to strengthen national breastfeeding policies

3 July 2025 15:00 – 16:30 CET

Podcasts

Episode #51 - Breastfeeding & COVID-19

If you have COVID-19, is it safe to breastfeed your baby? Is it safe to get vaccinated against COVID-19 if you are breastfeeding? How can you keep your baby safe while breastfeeding if you have COVID-19? Dr Laurence Grummer- Strawn explains in Science in 5.

Publications

All →

22 October 2025

Global nutrition targets 2030: topical briefs on maternal, infant and young child nutrition

Recognizing that the world is not on track to meet all of the 2025 global nutrition targets, WHO Member States, during the 78th World Health Assembly in...

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22 October 2025

Global nutrition targets 2030: breastfeeding brief

Exclusive breastfeeding – defined as the practice of only giving an infant breast-milk for the first 6 months of life (no other food or water) –...

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24 September 2025

Infant and young child feeding: model chapter for textbooks for medical students and allied health professionals,...

The Model Chapter, which was first published in 2009, brings together essential knowledge about infant and young child feeding that health professionals...

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21 July 2025

Levels and trends in child malnutrition: UNICEF/WHO/World Bank Group joint child malnutrition estimates:...

Child malnutrition estimates for the indicators stunting, severe wasting, wasting and overweight describe the magnitude and patterns of under- and overnutrition. ...

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Infographics

All →

Infographic

48% of infants under 6 months old are exclusively breastfed

Infographic

Investing in breastfeeding means investing in the future

Infographic

Listen, support, empower: WHO recommends at least 6 contacts with a breastfeeding counsellor

Infographic

Breast-Milk is the first superfood

Videos

All →

25 June 2025

Babies before bottom lines: formula milk advertising violates international agreements

4 March 2024

WHO's department of nutrition and food safety: key achievements 2023

5 July 2023

WHO press conference on global health issues - 5 July 2023

21 June 2023

WHO press conference on global health issues - 21 June 2023

Commentary

All → 1 August 2019

Empower parents, enable breastfeeding

Feature story

12 July 2023

Donors making a difference: building stronger health systems

Facts in pictures

20 February 2018

Breastfeeding

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Populations and demographics

Newborn health