Breastfeeding "Non-Compliance" Costs US $13 Billion A Year (allegedly)
A study released last week from the journal Pediatrics points to subpar breastfeeding rates in the US when it comes to first six months of a baby’s life. The consequence is a rash of health problems; the list is long and frightening: necrotizing enterocolitis (tissue death), otitis media (ear infections), gastroenteritis (stomach pain), hospitalization for lower respiratory tract infections, atopic dermatitis, sudden infant death syndrome, childhood asthma, childhood leukemia, type 1 diabetes, and childhood obesity.…And more than 900 babies die a year as a result of these, and the health care delivery system is beset with $13 billion in cost overruns thanks to formula-feeding. All this because, while three-quarters of new mothers start breastfeeding at birth, only 12% of infants are breastfed exclusively for six months, a far, far cry from the recommended 90%… The problem often is, mothers operate on such slim margins (of time, energy, resources, sanity) and breastfeeding can be a casualty of that balancing act. So formula is on one side of an unfortunate Sophie’s Choice: sanity or breastfeeding. Which would you choose?
I’m not really sure that it makes sense to frame this as an issue of “compliance” (although to be fair I always have a problem with medical use of compliance) while simultaneously pointing to structural and societal factors (not to mention biological or physiological factors that can also make breast feeding difficult) that make ‘compliance’ difficult/impossible. Lots of good points about structural and economics barriers to long-term breast feeding here, though!
Agreed re: the ridiculous use of “compliance” as if it’s somehow a requirement. It’s abhorrent how others feel they have the right to tell a mother how she should raise her child. The evidence is FAR from conclusive that breastfeeding for x amount of time will lead to a “healthier” baby. That being said, usually the only women who can afford to breastfeed for a very long time are those who have the luxury of not working. Finally, THAT being said, breastfeeding for such an extended period can and does often result in the woman being the primary caregiver of the child. If she’s cool with that then great, but she may not be.
I wish people would stop trying to tell women what they should and should not do with their bodies, whether it’s in regard to sex, employment, child-rearing, weight, body hair, or whatever. Just butt out.
Mandie, I totally agree with you on that… Plus, in studies comparing breastfed to non-breastfed babies, the effects of parents’ wealth, education and profession cannot be isolated — unless researchers randomly ask women to breastfeed or to abstain from it!
