Breastfeeding

Breastfeeding is what we are born to do – it is natural.

As mammals we have evolved over millions of years to drink the milk of our mothers. Artificial baby milk has been around for just a little longer than 100 years, and despite the attempt of the formula industry to make us believe that it is very similar to human breastmilk it simply is NOT! No other mammal drinks the milk of a foreign species – and we are not meant to do that either.

Breastmilk is produced by the mother in just the right amount, composition and with the perfect mix of immune cells, hormones, growth factors and cytokines for her baby to grow and develop optimally. Formula is a mixture of cow’s milk proteins, sugar and oils – some have added vitamins and fatty acids, but it is a dead liquid, not standing any comparison with the live breastmilk freshly produced by the mother for her child.

There are numerous reasons for you to support breastfeeding – the health of the infant or child is an important, but not the only one. The mother herself benefits from improved health – and the longer she breastfeed the bigger the benefit of for example a lower risk of cancer and diabetes. In the days of global warming we also need to think about the impact of artificial baby milk on the environment: dairy cows produce a substantial amount of methane, one of the greenhouse gases (in fact, cattle produce more global warming gasses than cars); cow’s milk has to be transported and processed, both contributing to pollution and using up limited resources; and what do we do with all the containers? Just think of the carbon foot print of a year’s worth of artificial baby milk, as opposed to human milk produced on site, without any pollution and cost to the environment.

The US Agency for Healthcare Research has recently reviewed all breastfeeding studies for the US Department of Health and Human Services, and published meta-analyses on the different outcomes – I will now go over the most important findings.

When we look at research on breastfed versus formula fed infants, it is important to keep in mind the limitations of many studies. First of all many compare “ever” breastfed infants with never breastfed infants – the “ever” breastfed group comprises infants who have been breastfed for one day, or even just one feed and those who have been exclusively breastfed for 6 months and continue to be breastfed beyond then. So if such a study finds a benefit in “ever” having been breastfed, imagine how much bigger that effect would be if you compared infants who had been (as per WHO recommendation) exclusively breastfed for 6 months and then continue to breastfeed for up to 2 years and beyond (once again per WHO).

The review from the US Agency for Healthcare Research has once again made it clear that compared to those who are breastfed, infants fed artificial baby milk have a higher risk of:

Some of the health benefits for children who are breastfed as babies last a lifetime – they have for example lower blood pressure as adults, which can protect them against heart attacks.

Mothers who breastfeed have a lower risk of diabetes, breast and ovarian cancers, post natal depression, rheumatoid arthritis and a higher survival rate compared to those who do not breastfeed. Let mothers know that it is in their own interest to breastfeed!

If all infants were breastfed, New Zealand as a country could save millions of dollars in health care expenditure each year: the cost for additional GP visits, antibiotics, hospital stays, and missed days at work for parents incurred by the non-breastfed children. Health insurance companies in Europe are picking up on the opportunity to save money and give discounts on their policies to mothers who breastfeed their children.

The health of the child, the mother, the environment and the economy should be enough reasons for anyone to support breastfeeding, since we all have been children, all have had mothers, and are all living on this planet.