When Mila Kunis, wife of Ashton Kutcher and star of the movie “Bad Moms” (though she's really a good one), breastfed her now four-year-old daughter Wyatt Isabelle in public, she had a straightforward answer to people’s questions about why she was doing it.

“Why?” she asked. “Because she was hungry.”

That clear-thinking attitude toward caring for an infant is now more mainstream. In fact, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that breastfeeding rates are rising.

Today, more than 80 percent of mothers begin breastfeeding their babies at birth, and 51.8 percent are still breastfeeding at six months.

New research from the Cleveland Clinic reveals a surprising way to increase breastfeeding rates even more. Don't rush baby off for a bath right after birth; it reduces skin-to-skin contact, interferes with bonding, chills the little one (not good), and interferes with easy latching on.

The researchers looked at the breastfeeding differences between quick bathing and simply wiping off the baby's skin before leaving the child on mom's torso (bathing happened 12-plus hours later).

They found that exclusive breastfeeding rates went up from 59.8 percent for moms with immediately bathed babies to 69.2 percent for no-immediate-bath-for-baby moms.

Beyond the well-documented boost to baby's immune strength that comes from breastfeeding, it turns out that as breastfeeding rates go up, medical costs associated with maternal and childhood illnesses decrease by $13 billion to $17 billion for society.

So if you're headed for delivery, let your doctor know that you're interested in postponing your newborn's bath. You and your baby will benefit in many ways.