What is it about?

Not enough breastfeeding costs the global economy almost $1 billion each day due to lost productivity and healthcare costs, researchers said on Friday, as health experts urged more support for nursing mothers. A new website developed by researchers in Canada and Asia showed that the world could have saved $341 billion each year if mothers breastfeed their children for longer, helping prevent early deaths and various diseases. Known as the "Cost of Not Breastfeeding", the online tool used data from a six-year study supported by the U.S.-based maternal and child nutrition initiative, Alive & Thrive.

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Why is it important?

The United Nations' World Health Organization (WHO) recommends that babies be breastfed exclusively at least their first six months, then have a diet of breast milk and other food until they are two years old. Breastfeeding can help prevent diarrhea and pneumonia, two major causes of infant death, and protect mothers against ovarian and breast cancer, according to the U.N. agency. But only 40% of infants under six months are exclusively breastfed globally. Obstacles to breastfeeding range from a lack of facilities and break times at places of work, aggressive marketing of baby formula, and harassment or stigma if women nurse in public.

Perspectives

"Economic evidence resonates well with policymakers. Not investing in breastfeeding has a cost," Alive & Thrive's Southeast Asia director Roger Mathisen told the Thomson Reuters Foundation by phone from Hanoi. "This tool is really making the argument that it is a good investment to expand policies such as paid maternity leave," he said, adding that it would help keep women in the workforce and boost the country's economy. Ref: ‪https://www.reuters.com/article/us-global-health-breastfeed-idUSKCN1U70ZV‬

Roger Mathisen
FHI 360

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This page is a summary of: The cost of not breastfeeding: global results from a new tool, Health Policy and Planning, June 2019, Oxford University Press (OUP),
DOI: 10.1093/heapol/czz050.
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