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!