Breastfeeding: The Best Investment
Breastfeeding is an unsentimental metaphor for how love
works, in a way. You don’t decide how much or how deeply
to love -- you respond to the beloved and give with joy exactly
how much they want.
...breastfeeding is above all a relationship...that occupies
the mind in a way you don’t even realize until you step
outside that tired, dreamy bubble.
--Marni Jackson excerpted from The Mother Zone: Love
Sex and Laundry in the Modern Family
  Breastfeeding:
The Best Investment
The theme for this year’s World Breastfeeding Week comes
with a profusion of ideas. To fully realize the true dimension
of this investment, we need to consider the immense value that
breastfeeding contributes to the well being of mothers and children,
the lifelong health benefits, the economic contributions in cost
savings for the health care system and the positive impact on
our global environment and most of all breastfeeding is an investment
in love.
Breastfeeding: an investment in life
Each year the global death toll keeps mounting. Children not
breastfed face an increased risk of death due to diarrheal disease
of 14 times greater than their breastfed counterparts. The World
Health Organization and UNICEF estimate that about 1.5 million
babies die every year because they are not breastfed. This enormous
cost in loss of life is a tragedy that continuous as breastfeeding
protection mechanisms are still insufficient. Many countries
still have inadequate legislation to stem bottle feeding pressures
and many governments face pressure from the infant formula industries
to deregulate and soften existing regulations, sometimes under
economic threat.
Breastfeeding: an investment in health
The health benefits are so overwhelming. The benefits of optimal
nutrition -- such as preventing serious malnutrition in developing
countries, preventing debilitating iron deficiency anemia, optimal
intellectual capacity and visual acuity, are immeasurable. Nor
can the important benefits related to protection against viral
and bacterial disease be undervalued -- protection against
gastrointestinal and acute respiratory disease, or protection
against otitis media, urinary tract and other infections. Nor
are the benefits of protection against debilitating chronic or
autoimmune disease measurable -- obesity, diabetes, cancers,
osteoporosis, allergies to name a few.
Breastfeeding: an investment in society
Key to improving the health of populations is the better nourishment
of children. According to social and health analyst, Fraser Mustard(1), development
of competence and coping skills is related to the development
of the brain cortex in early childhood. Breastfeeding can provide
the perfect nutritional and emotional nurturing to endow the
infant with the important capacity needed for a full and productive
life.
Breastfeeding: an investment in full human potential
Studies showing the links between breastfeeding and brain and
neural tissue development are being reported from many parts
of the world. In New Zealand, Horwood(2) and his team, report higher IQ assessed
at ages 8 and 9 years; higher teacher ratings in reading and
mathematical abilities; better reading comprehension, math ability
and overall scholastic ability from 10 to 13 years of age; and
better school leaving grades. In Chile(3) a study of 1,700 children exclusively breastfed
for 5 to 7 months performed better on standard mental development
tests and on psychomotor tests than those not exclusively breastfed.
Those breastfed for the longest duration did better than their
non-breastfed counterparts. Nine year olds in the Netherlands(4) who had been breastfed as infants did better
on neurological tests than their non-breastfed counterparts.
The ability of breastmilk to deliver the required nutrients
and the impact of maternal/infant bonding both contribute to
important human functions, including those brain functions relating
to harmonious social, sexual, and peaceful behaviours.
References:
1. Mustard, Fraser,
Early Childhood and Health and Well-Being Throughout the Life
Cycle. Presented at the Breastfeeding: Nature’s Way Conference,
Saskatoon, November 1997 BACK
2. Horwood, L. et al.
Breastfeeding and later cognitive development and academic outcomes.
Pediatrics 101:1-7, 1998 BACK
3. BFHI News. Research
in Chile highlights importance of mother-baby interaction. UNICEF.
March 1998 BACK
4. Lanting, et al. Neurological
differences between 9 year-old children fed breast-milk or formula-milk
as babies Lancet 344:1319-1322, 1994 BACK |
