Breastfeeding is so important for child health that the World Health Organization (WHO) and Unicef recommend that babies should be breastfed within an hour of birth, be exclusively breastfed for the first six months of life, and then continue breastfeeding in combination with other foods for two years or more.

Infectious disease emergencies can threaten breastfeeding and the lives of mothers and babies. Depending on the disease, there is a risk of passing infection to the baby by close contact or (rarely) through breastmilk. There is also the risk of harm to breastfed infants from medication or vaccination of their mothers.