[email protected] Nursing students at the UPMC Altoona Birth Center examine patient records on Tuesday. Mirror photo by Bill Kibler UPMC Altoona on Tuesday celebrated its support of breastfeeding, having recently earned a Pennsylvania Department of Health designation as a Keystone 10 facility by demonstrating that it follows the core tenets of a breastfeeding promotion program. Breastfeeding is a natural practice with numerous benefits for children and mothers that civilization turned away from, starting about 200 years ago — but that has reasserted itself over the past four decades, according to online information. Research has shown that benefits for the child include a 50 percent reduction of the risk of sudden infant death syndrome, provision of antibodies that protect against illness, reduced risk of asthma and allergies, reduced risk of obesity and a better chance of higher intelligence; while benefits for mothers include reduced risk of breast and ovarian cancer, osteoporosis, heart disease and Type 2 diabetes; faster return to pre-pregnancy weight, development of a special bond with the baby and monetary savings, according to a hospital news release.