No, really. The IT Wire covers a new Pediatrics study that breastfeeding could save 911 lives and billions of dollars annually:
…[T]he paper in the journal Pediatrics states, “The United States incurs $13 billion in excess costs annually and suffers 911 preventable deaths per year because our breastfeeding rates fall far below medical recommendations.”
The authors are quoted in the CNN article to have said, “If 90% of US families could comply with medical recommendations to breastfeed exclusively for 6 months, the United States would save $13 billion per year and prevent an excess 911 deaths, nearly all of which would be in infants ($10.5 billion and 741 deaths at 80% compliance).”Other health and medical organizations throughout the world state very similar suggestions for breastfeeding.
…
The U.S. researchers conclude, “Current US breastfeeding rates are suboptimal and result in significant excess costs and preventable infant deaths….”
We’re still that alienated from our own boobies? Apparently so.