In addition to improving infant health outcomes, breastfeeding also reduces the risk of several maternal health outcomes. For each year a women breastfeeds her child, studies have shown that she is 4 to 28 percent less likely to develop breast cancer.4 According to the Center of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), approximately 202,964 women were diagnosed with breast cancer and 40,598 of those women died from the disease in 2007 (the most recent year numbers are available).