Breast Cancer and Breastfeeding: What Is the Real Risk to the Baby?
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For Muslim women, however, the month also offers another lens on Canadian history — one that reveals women who did more than find a place in Canada. They helped shape the country that Canada became.
A mother’s breast cancer cannot be passed to her baby through breastfeeding. Cancer is not contagious, and breast cancer cells are not transmitted through breast milk.
The main concern is not the cancer itself, but the treatment. Some chemotherapy drugs, hormone therapies and targeted treatments can pass into breast milk and may affect the baby. For this reason, doctors may advise a mother to stop breastfeeding temporarily during treatment and resume only when it is considered safe.
After treatment, some women may be able to breastfeed again, particularly from an unaffected breast, although surgery or radiation can reduce milk production in the treated breast.
It is also important to distinguish between cancer transmission and inherited risk. A child does not inherit the mother’s cancer itself, but certain genetic mutations linked to a higher risk of breast cancer, including BRCA1 and BRCA2, can be inherited.
The key point is simple: breast cancer itself does not pass to a baby, but breastfeeding decisions should be based on the type of treatment the mother is receiving.
