Taming the monster that is medical costs is a multi-part job. Luckily, there’s one solution that is simply all-natural. However, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), when three-quarters of babies born in the United States take their first meals via breastfeeding, the pace plummets after six months, which runs contrary to CDC Healthy People requirements. Medical luminaries point to the direct correlation between low nursing rates and high pediatric expenses, considering the heightened potential for infant disease due to weaker immune systems.
Breastfeeding creates health
Dr. William Dietz of the CDC told Medpage Today that “Meeting the national breastfeeding initiation goal is a good accomplishment in women’s and children’s health, but we have more work ahead”. As a mere 43 percent of babies are still nursing at six months and 22 percent at one year – per the CDC study – America truly does have work to do.
Breastfeeding pariahs
In 2007, the CDC found great variation in nursing rates across America. For instance, while 90 percent of babies in Utah were breastfed, only 53 percent enjoyed the very same benefit in Mississippi. State support for breastfeeding policies are a significant part of the study. The CDC study found that there were 21 states without appropriate breastfeeding facilities or hospitals that scored low for maternity conveniences and lactation and latching instruction. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, there has been improvement on the legislative level since the 2007 CDC study, however there remain states that don’t have specific laws guarding the right to breastfeed outside the home in an area other than a cramped restroom. As the 2009 Facebook scandal involving a ban on nursing photos proves, some segments of The United States simply do not understand what it means to be human. Such animosity toward breastfeeding works for the bottom line of infant formula makers, too. Fortunately, some right-thinking people brought the Nestlé boycott to bear when the mega company went too far.
Be ready to pay intensely if you turn away from breastfeeding
Dr. Melissa Bartick of Harvard Medical School and Arnold Reinhold of the Alliance for the Prudent Use of Antibiotics found in a recent study that infants who weren’t fed colostrum-rich breast milk contributed mightily to soaring pediatric expenses. Their recent report in the journal Pediatrics suggests that “$3.6 billion might be saved if breastfeeding rates were increased to levels of the Nutritious People objectives”. That’s 2001 info. The authors update the study, with startling results. Bartick and Reinhold found that if children 6 months and under were fed breast milk exclusively at the CDC Nutritious Individuals level of 90 percent, American families could save “$13 billion per year and prevent an excess of 911 deaths, nearly all of which would be in infants”.
What about infant formula? When inferior to breast milk in terms of disease prevention and growth promotion, it is also expensive. Some mothers have personal medical reasons for using infant formula, and being within the position of needing cash for costly formula – via payday loan or otherwise – is a tough place to be.
Additional reading
Pediatrics
pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/content/abstract/peds.2009-1616v1
CDC Breast Feeding Report Card
cdc.gov/breastfeeding/pdf/BreastfeedingReportCard2010.pdf
Medpage Today
medpagetoday.com/Pediatrics/GeneralPediatrics/22162
National Conference of State Legislatures
ncsl.org/default.aspx?tabid=14389
Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breast_milk
