Study: Increased Breastfeeding Could Save Lives, Decrease Health Care Costs

From CNN: "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 study recommends what WHO has been urging for years, that infants be exclusively breastfed for the first six months of life. According to the study's authors, an 80-90% rate of breastfeeding in the first three months of an infant's life, and then occasional breastfeeding until six months would dramatically decrease infant's risk of death from SIDs (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome), necrotizing entercolitis (mostly in preemies), lower respiratory infections, and several other diseases.¹

Let's start with what this doesn't mean. What this study doesn't mean is that if you do not breastfeed, your healthy child will die or is at an extremely high risk of death or illness. What this study doesn't mean is that if you do breastfeed your child as recommended, your child will be completely safe from the diseases named. The first is a false fear, and the second is a false hope. This study also does not point fingers at individual mothers and chastise them for not breastfeeding, nor does it make any moral judgements about breastfeeding or not. It is a scientific study, not a social commentary. It leaves room for a percentage of women who simply cannot breastfeed, and focuses on the overall benefits of increased statistical rates of breastfeeding.

So what does this study mean? To start with, it gives a huge boost to the idea that breastfeeding provides measurable health and safety benefits to infants. In particular, babies born prematurely can benefit greatly from breast milk, as they are the most vulnerable to the top three problems listed in the study.²

Even healthy newborns, however, benefit greatly from breastfeeding. This study suggests that several common childhood illnesses can be alleviated or prevented by following the breastfeeding guidelines outlined therein. ³ That breastfeeding provides protection from diseases like asthma, stomach viruses and childhood diabetes has long been a talking point of "lactivists" (activists promoting breastfeeding). What is remarkable about this study is that it has been published in a mainstream medical journal, and picked up by mainstream media. The combined effect is that this information will have some credibility in larger society and not just with "crunchy granola" folks.

What can we ultimately take from this article? For those of us who already "believe in" breastfeeding as a major contributor to infant health, we now have undeniably mainstream scientific backing for that belief. This study should prompt a change in medical culture with regard to breastfeeding versus formula, and we might hope to see a little less favor given to to formula companies by doctors and hospitals. Most importantly, those mothers who have been weighing the question of breastfeeding, or wavering because of societal or family pressures opposing it, now have more evidence on the side of the balance for breastfeeding.

Breastfeeding has once again been demonstrated to be an important tool in maintaining the health of children. Like most such tools, what works for one person may not work for another, or may not even be available. But taking a broad view of the matter, we can be certain that working to increase breastfeeding rates in America would be a very good thing for the nation's youngest citizens and their long-term health.

1 Lack of Breastfeeding Costs Lives, Billions of Dollars, Miriam Falco, CNN

2 Preemie Health Problems, Cheryl Morrissette, About.com

3 More Breastfeeding Could Save US Billions, Reuters Health