Breastfeeding is a lifesaver!

[Cricket]

I was just doing a bit of looking around for info on breastfeeding, and I came across a couple of interesting articles. One was from Unicef, and reported that if all babies world-wide were exclusively breast-fed until 6 months, 3500 babies would be saved DAILY. 3500 PER DAY!

And, the next article suggested that this was not just a "third-world" problem. It said that if 90% of American women breastfed their babies, (so allowing for women for whom it just doesn't work out, and adoptive parents, etc.) 900 lives would be saved per year. Which means that just about 2.5 babies die each day in the US, primarily because they were not breastfed! It also pointed out the billions of dollars that could be saved (in health care) by promoting 6 months of exclusive breastfeeding. Here's a link to the article:
Breast-feeding could save 900 U.S. babies a year - Health - Kids and parenting - msnbc.com

I'm not posting this to add to the guilt or struggle of any mum who has tried breastfeeding and just can't make it work. I ran out of milk (yep, really) when I had double pneumonia when my DD1 was 3 months old. Sometimes it just doesn't work out. But I do want to encourage every mum out there to give it her best shot - get support and get information and try to make it work for as long as you can for your baby. Encourage your friends too! It really does make a difference!

[helle]

2.5 babies die each day in the US, primarily because they were not breastfed!

from what i understand.. the babies have underlying illnesses that they could have recovered from with the aid on breasfeeding. They're not just dropping off because they're not breastfed ^^;;

However, yep! Go Breastfeeding

[Cricket]

Yeah, I knew they meant there were other issues with the infants who died, but that still means that if nothing else in their care was changed except breastfeeding, they would not have died. So breastfeeding was still the determining factor, and what could have saved their lives.

[mrsmac]

Wow that is amazing. Go breastfeeding! I hope that this encourages even just one woman to persevere with bf.

[Fleur]

That is amazing.

Makes me think again though - WHY are breast milk banks (or lactation consultants for that matter) not government funded - there are so many women who really do struggle, or can't BF for some reason, and there are so many women who would happily donate their milk.

But as it stands, there are only a couple of functioning milk banks and they struggle for funding. Makes me

[MantaRay]

Similar studies have been done here too. In 2003, the National Health and Medical Research Council in Australia estimated the cost of just 30% of infants being weaned onto formula by 3 months cost the country $20 million in health costs, based on just 5 of the most common illnesses which are known to be prevented, or nearly prevented, by breastfeeding. This is why I find it hard to believe that the government isn't doing more to support breastfeeding mums, and provide breastfeeding education and support.

Fleur, the recent Parliamentary Inquiry into Breastfeeding recommended funding breastmilk banks nationally but sadly the funding is yet to be seen

[helle]

just curious about the BM Banks... would milk be seperated into "age groups"... EG new born and say, 9 months? so a mother donating her milk could only go to another baby of the same age as her milk.... Wow that makes so sense!!

I'm assuming that the properties of breastmilk for a newborn and for that of a 7 month old would be alot different?

i think it's a great idea if it would be more widely funded

[Fleur]

Teagz, they do take the age of the donor mum's bub into account - but I think the issue is storage, and the cost of pastuerising & storing the milk. I was donating up until Pie was about 8 or 9 months old, I still had plenty to donate but they had limited room & mothers with younger babies that were donating, so their milk took priority.
It's kind of what I'm getting at though -imagine if money was no object, and they could take as much milk as they were given, for all age groups... then you could possibly have a situation where all babies have a shot at getting breast milk for the first few months at least.

[mrsmac]

Wouldn't it be good if they could put a levy on the massive profits made by formula companies and use it to fund milk banks ?

[Fleur]

mrsmac, BRILLIANT idea! you should run for parliament - I'd vote for you!