The World Cancer Research Fund analysed 7000 previous studies and found that breastfeeding reduced the risk by 4.8%.
Women have a one in nine chance of getting breast cancer in their lifetime, meaning that the overall reduction in risk is just above 0.5%.
Breastfeeding has been linked to lower obesity levels in children and is known to confer immunity to the newborn against a clutch of infections, including respiratory diseases.
Breastfeeding apparently rids the body of any breast cells that have suffered damage to the DNA.
