According to 2010 research published in the journal Pediatrics, if mothers would breastfeed their babies for the first six months of life, then 911 lives would be saved in the United States and billions of dollars saved annually.





The paper ' The Burden of Suboptimal Breastfeeding in the United States: A Pediatric Cost Analysis ' that is a summary of their research is published in the Aprl 2010 issue of the journal Pediatrics (doi:10.1542/peds.2009-1616).According to the CNN Health article ' Study: Lack of breastfeeding costs lives, billions of dollars ,' the paper in the journal Pediatrics states, "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 authors are quoted in the CNN article to have said, 'If 90% of US families could comply with medical recommendations to breastfeed exclusively for 6 months, the United States would save $13 billion per year and prevent an excess 911 deaths, nearly all of which would be in infants ($10.5 billion and 741 deaths at 80% compliance).'Other health and medical organizations throughout the world state very similar suggestions for breastfeeding. The World Health Organization (WHO), 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 (CDC) all state that six months of breastfeeding is healthy for babies.Dr. Melissa Bartick, from Department of Medicine, Cambridge Health Alliance and Harvard Medical School, is one of the authors of the study.Dr. Bartick states a lot of money could be saved each year by breastfeeding longer. She states, such savings could be realized ''¦ 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.' [CNN]

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Dr. Arnold Reinhold, from the Alliance for the Prudent Use of Antibiotics, Boston, Massachusetts) is the second author of the study.

Reinhold and Bartick found that much money is needlessly wasted each year due to premature deaths due to lack of breastfeeding.

They state the specific causes of 95% of these deaths are from 'sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS); necrotizing enterocolitis, seen primarily in preterm babies and in which the lining of the intestinal wall dies; and lower respiratory infections such as pneumonia.' [CNN]



The U.S. researchers conclude, 'Current US breastfeeding rates are suboptimal and result in significant excess costs and preventable infant deaths. Investment in strategies to promote longer breastfeeding duration and exclusivity may be cost-effective.' [Paper]