Breast-Feeding Could Save Lives

A new study estimates that if 90 percent of American women fed their children breast milk and not formula in their first six months, billions of dollars along with the lives of 900 babies would be saved. “The health-care system has got to be aware that breast-feeding makes a profound difference,” said one of the doctors behind the study, which also found that breast milk could help prevent common illnesses including asthma, juvenile diabetes, and Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. Said another doctor behind the study published in the journal Pediatrics: “We’d all love as pediatricians to be able to carry this information into the boardrooms by saying we all gain by small changes at the workplace." The recent health-care overhaul requires businesses to provide mothers with a private space to pump breast milk.