Lack of breastfeeding costs lives, billions of dollars

[Karmadillo]

Of course, this means extended maternity leave, but the fight for that would be good practice for overthrowing our Corporate Masters.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/04/05/breastfeeding.costs/?hpt=T2

Study: Lack of breastfeeding costs lives, billions of dollars

(CNN) -- If most new moms would breastfeed their babies for the first six months of life, it would save nearly 1,000 lives and billions of dollars each year, according to a new study published Monday in the journal Pediatrics.

"The United States incurs $13 billion in excess costs annually and suffers 911 preventable deaths per year because our breastfeeding rates fall far below medical recommendations," the report said.

The World Health Organization says infants should be exclusively breastfed for the first six months of life "to achieve optimal growth, development and health." The WHO is not alone in its recommendations.

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Academy of Family Physicians and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention all agree that breast milk alone is sufficient for newborns and infants until they are 6 months old.

However, a 2009 breastfeeding report card from the CDC found that only 74 percent of women start breastfeeding, only 33 percent were still exclusively breastfeeding at three months and only 14 percent were still exclusively breastfeeding at six months.

Dr. Melissa Bartick, one of the new study's co-authors, says the vast majority of extra costs incurred each year could be saved "if 80 to 90 percent of women exclusively breastfed for as little as four months and if 90 percent of women would breastfeed some times until six months." Bartick is a hospitalist -- a doctor who specializes in the care of hospitalized patients -- at Cambridge Health Alliance, an instructor in medicine at Harvard Medical School and a mother of two.

more...

[Oregone]

1. Its a little easier to breastfeed if a country provides paid maternity leave

No wonder the rates drop off so quick. Women are hurried back to work.

[MineralMan]

2. Laissez les enfants manger au Jardin Olive

Je dis seulement...

[Hippo_Tron]

3. From where does he derive the $10.56 million per child?

[Oregone]

6. You figure they are just accounting for the dead ones?

[Hippo_Tron]

7. I honestly don't know

I'm trying to figure out where the figure comes from, the article doesn't explain it very well.

[Oregone]

10. My assumption is they are trying to also account for sicknesses that could be preventable

Just a guess

[HuckleB]

19. Apparently, most of the figure comes from the "lost wages" of the purported dead child.

I can get a hard copy of the actual published report at work sometime soon, and I'll try to clarify that question.

[ensho]

4. even if they breast fed for several weeks it would help the health of the baby

that's what breasts are for.

[LeftyMom]

12. And the mother.

Breastfeeding reduces breast cancer risk for the long term (and the longer you breastfeed the greater the protective effect,) and greatly increases the mother's health in the postpartum period.

[RedCloud]

5. Bingo! It says 911 preventable deaths. Let it go as that and big bucks will follow.

Mom's milk knows better than cow's milk!

We are,after all, mammals.

911 is the magic number in the USA for unquestioned funding out the wazoo, BTW.

[snooper2]

9. There's no "cow's milk" in formula...

FYI

[LeftyMom]

11. Yes there is, unless it's soy formula.

The regular stuff is based on milk from cows, which is heated to break the proteins down somewhat, then some fats and vitamins and corn syrup and god knows what else are added. The hypoallergenic stuff breaks the proteins down more, but it's still either cow's milk based or soy based.

[snooper2]

13. ah, learned something new...nothing like the milk out of the cow

after it's processed though...

Baby seems to like it enough...

Reduced Minerals Whey, Nonfat Milk, Vegetable Oil (Palm Olein, Soy, Coconut, and High Oleic Sunflower Oils), Lactose, and Less than 1%: Galactooligosaccharides (GOS) (a Type of Prebiotic), Mortierella Alpina Oil , Crypthecodinium Cohnii Oil , Mono- and Diglycerides Soy Lecithin, Carrageenan, Vitamin A Palmitate, Vitamin D3, Vitamin E Acetate, Vitamin K1, Thiamin Hydrochloride Vitamin B6 Hydrochloride, Vitamin B12, Niacinamide, Folic Acid, Calcium Pantothenate, Biotin, Sodium Ascorbate, Ascorbic Acid, Choline Chloride, Inositol Calcium Carbonate, Calcium Chloride, Calcium Phosphate, Ferrous Sulfate, Zinc Sulfate. Manganese Sulfate, Cupric Sulfate, Sodium Chloride, Sodium Citrate, Potassium Citrate, Potassium Hydroxide, Sodium Selenite, Taurine Nucleotides (Adenosine 5'-Monophosphate, Cytidine 5'-Monophosphate, Disodium Guanosine 5'-Monophosphate, Disodium Uridine 5'-Monophosphate).

[Soylent Brice]

8. too many choices today...

between smoking threads and breastfeeding threads, all that is lacking is an anti-vax thread, and we'll hit the trifecta!!

[CTyankee]

14. There hasn't been a circumcision thread lately...

Those can get kinda hinky...

[Soylent Brice]

15. yeah, people get snippy at each other in those. n/t

[CTyankee]

16. You are very, very bad...

Here :spank:

[Soylent Brice]

18. heh heh...

[SoCalDem]

17. Moms need TIME with their babies in order to feed them

If Mom is schlepping the baby to daycare and using her day at work, it's hard to feed the baby herself.

Breastfeeding is about more than pumping milk into a bottle at breaktime.


It's about supply & demand, and finding the rhythm between Mom & baby. That requires TIME with the baby..24-7.

Most modern Moms cannot choose to stay home with their babies.

The irony is that so many of the last generation of women who DID have time with their babies, were conned into thinking that "modern Mothers" should use formula..

Many Moms during the 50's & 60's chose formula because clever marketers convinced them it was "better" for their babies:(