August: Celebrating Breastfeeding Awareness Month

• Date: August 5, 2025

Why is breastfeeding important?

August is National Breastfeeding Month, a dedicated time to celebrate and raise awareness about the benefits of breastfeeding for both infants and mothers.¹ Whether it comes directly from the breast or is expressed (pumped) and delivered via bottle, breast milk is the best food for babies because it provides them with everything they need to grow healthy and strong.^2,1 The American Academy of Pediatrics and the United States Department of Health and Human Services’ Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommend exclusive breastfeeding for approximately 6 months after birth.^3,4

The benefits of breastfeeding are extensive, offering advantages for both infants and mothers and building a strong foundation for health and well-being.^5,6 For infants, breastfeeding can reduce the risk of asthma, obesity, sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), and gastrointestinal infections that can cause diarrhea and vomiting. For mothers, breastfeeding can help lower the risk of high blood pressure, Type 2 diabetes, ovarian cancer, and breast cancer.

Breastfeeding is a skill that requires practice.¹ It is very common for new mothers to need support. Planning ahead during pregnancy, seeking trusted information, and utilizing available resources can help get breastfeeding off to a good start.⁷ This may involve looking for supportive health care providers and hospitals with lactation consultants or attending breastfeeding classes. Be sure to include your desire to breastfeed in your birth plan, sharing it with your support team and hospital staff so your baby can have early feedings. Gathering and preparing practical items ahead of time, such as a nursing bra, can also ease the transition.

The best way to increase breastfeeding rates is to make breastfeeding easier and more accessible for new mothers to practice — it requires a collective effort from family, communities, clinicians, health care systems, and employers.⁸

Breastfeeding statistics in the U.S.

While the benefits of breastfeeding are clear, not all families have equal opportunities to achieve their breastfeeding goals, especially when it comes to exclusive breastfeeding for the recommended 6 months.

According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 27.9% of infants in the U.S. are exclusively breastfed through 6 months.⁹ Disparities exist in breastfeeding rates, however. The rate of exclusive breastfeeding through 6 months is higher among:

• Non-Hispanic Asian infants compared with non-Hispanic Black infants. It is also higher among non-Hispanic white infants compared with non-Hispanic Black infants.
• Mothers who are college graduates compared with those with less than a high school education.
• Married mothers compared with unmarried, separated, widowed, or divorced mothers.
• Infants whose mothers are ineligible for WIC compared with those whose mothers receive WIC.

Strategies to increase breastfeeding rates

To support all families and address disparities, comprehensive strategies are important. One highly effective approach is the Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative (BFHI). Participating hospitals follow the clinical practice and management guidelines set out in the BFHI’s Ten Steps to Successful Breastfeeding, which are shown to increase overall breastfeeding rates and reduce racial disparities in initiation.¹⁰ Supportive employment policies like paid maternity leave and workplace support programs can further increase the number of women who start and continue breastfeeding.¹¹ More evidence-based approaches for public health professionals and other stakeholders are detailed in the Surgeon General’s Call to Action to Support Breastfeeding and the CDC Guide to Strategies to Support Breastfeeding Mothers and Babies.

Direct support resources and assistance for new mothers may be available through WIC (the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children) and from the Office on Women’s Health.

References

1. March of Dimes. “August Is National Breastfeeding Month.” Blog. MarchofDimes.org, August 1, 2023. https://www.marchofdimes.org/find-support/blog/august-national-breastfeeding-month.

2. Cleveland Clinic. “Lactation (Breast Milk Production): How It Works.” my.ClevelandClinic.org, reviewed December 16, 2021. https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/body/22201-lactation.

3. Meek, Joan Younger, and Lawrence Noble. “Policy Statement: Breastfeeding and the Use of Human Milk.” Pediatrics, Organizational Principles to Guide and Define the Child Health Care System and/or Improve the Health of all Children, 150, no. 1 (July 1, 2022): e2022057988. https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2022-057988.

4. U.S. Department of Agriculture and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2020-2025. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Agriculture and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, December 2020. https://www.dietaryguidelines.gov/sites/default/files/2020-12/Dietary_Guidelines_for_Americans_2020-2025.pdf. 

5. U.S. Breastfeeding Committee. “Breastfeeding: A Public Health Imperative — Reference Materials for Policy, Systems, and Environmental Change (PSE).” USBreastfeeding.org, updated April 2025. https://www.usbreastfeeding.org/breastfeeding-references.html. 

6. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “About Breastfeeding.” CDC.gov, December 9, 2024. https://www.cdc.gov/breastfeeding/php/about/index.html. 

7. March of Dimes. “Breastfeeding Your Baby.” MarchofDimes.org, reviewed April 2019. https://www.marchofdimes.org/find-support/topics/parenthood/breastfeeding-your-baby. 

8. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The Surgeon General’s Call to Action to Support Breastfeeding. Rockville, MD: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the Surgeon General, 2011. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK52682/. 

9. “Rates of Any and Exclusive Breastfeeding by Socio–Demographics Among Children Born in 2022.” National Immunization Survey-Child, Breastfeeding Data Module. Accessed August 4, 2025. https://www.cdc.gov/breastfeeding-data/modules/2022-rates-any-exclusive-bf-socio-dem.html. 

10. Pérez-Escamilla, Rafael, Josefa L. Martinez, and Sofia Segura-Pérez. “Impact of the Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative on Breastfeeding and Child Health Outcomes: A Systematic Review.” Maternal & Child Nutrition 12, no. 3 (July 2016): 402–17. https://doi.org/10.1111/mcn.12294. 

11. Ben-Ishai, Liz. Public Policies to Support Breastfeeding: Paid Family Leave and Workplace Lactation Accommodations. The Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP), July 26, 2016. https://www.clasp.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/2016-07-26-BreastfeedingPaidLeaveLacAcc_FINAL.pdf.