International Breastfeeding Week: Breast is Best

Becoming a new mother is a lot of exhaustion, excitement, confusion, and gratification. Sometimes, especially for first time mothers, throwing breastfeeding into the mix can be a bit too much. There are teams around the world that understand these feelings and strive to offer options for new mothers. Even before the infant is born, mothers can become educated on caring for their baby through prenatal education classes as well as sessions that are offered on breastfeeding.

"Mother Support: Going for The Gold" is this year's theme for the World Breastfeeding Week, which is being held in over 120 countries, coinciding with the Olympic Games in Beijing. As multinational athletes compete for the gold medal, breastfeeding enthusiasts from around the world are encouraging society to support mothers who are breastfeeding, so that our children can "go for the gold" in their own lives by achieving their full potential.

Breastfeeding is considered to be the best start in every infant's life as it is the "gold standard" of infant feeding. Mothers are advised to breastfeed their infants exclusively for six months and give appropriate complimentary foods, and continue breastfeeding their baby until they are two years old. A medical director from the Breastfeeding and Human Lactation Study Center in the University of Rochester said, "Every newborn should be breastfed as this would provide the best nutrition, the greatest infection protection, the most illness prevention, and the greatest food security and psychological protection for the infant."

It is not an easy task for a new mother to continue breastfeeding while they are returning to work when the infants are just three or four months old. They have to plan very carefully on when and how to pump and store the breastmilk during the hours they are working.

In 1992, the breast milk production in Norway accounted for 8.2 million kilogrammes, which is worth approximately 400 million dollars in U.S. money. The average breast milk production per infant was approximately 234 liters their first year and 111 liters in their second year. So, have we honestly considered the cost of not breastfeeding our infants?

Here are some of the costs:

• The cost of having to purchase formula, bottles, heating and cleaning equipment for the bottles, storage, and cleaning supplies for milk and bottle transportation.
• Cost of health care from physicians because infants that are not breastfed get sick more often at an early age.
• At a national level, the nation can save the costs of having milk substitutes imported, creating a marketing campaign, inventory, and logistics. We can also save the costs of disposing of packaging which can help reducing the effects of global warming. The government can also save some money on health care costs for the sick infants. The employers and the whole national economy can benefit from higher productivity, which is generated by their own employees.

The breastfeeding mothers need support. Family members that understand the importance of breast milk should help to encourage the new mothers to breastfeed their children as long as they can. Physicians and nurses are also accounted for in the influence to encourage or discourage the new mothers to breastfeed.