Breast-feeding benefits newborn and mother

Daniel Taylor, a pediatrician with St. Christopher's Hospital for Children, wrote this for the "Check Up" blog.

Recently I saw a 1-month-old whose mother is committed to breast-feeding but she had to go back to her job to support her family. She works in a large department store where she hand-pumps breast milk for her infant in the employee's bathroom because there is no private, sanitary place for her to pump, as current law requires, and no outlet for her electric breast pump in the stalls.

Sadly, this is not a unique story.

The human body has evolved over millions of years to survive, thrive, reproduce, and care for our children. That is, until the urbanization of the United States in the late 19th century, when many new mothers were forced to join the workforce.

Now, with health care costs eating up almost 18 percent of GDP, with our infant mortality rates ranked a shocking 28th among industrialized nations, with exclusive breast-feeding rates at 6 months of age hovering at 15 percent, now, more than ever, we need to look at how breast-feeding can save billions a year. It can save thousands of children's lives and make our planet healthier by cutting waste from packaging.

But first, reflect on what we know about the benefits of breast-feeding, or on the dangers of not breast-feeding.

From the first feeding, a newborn is bathed in "liquid gold," which is filled with specialized cells and proteins to help boost a neonate's immune system.

Continued breast-feeding coats the infant's gut with factors that keep a child's pH acidic, less likely to allow growth of bad bacteria, and more likely to keep the natural gut flora that has lifelong health benefits.

Due to the unique, irreproducible properties of breast milk, breast-fed children develop fewer ear, intestinal, and lung infections. Parents miss fewer days of work, and fewer children die from preventable infectious diseases.

Breast-fed infants also suffer 50 percent less sudden infant death syndrome.

Later in life, breast-fed children have lower risks of diseases of the immune system. These include less asthma, allergies, and eczema, less celiac disease and diabetes, and less childhood leukemia.

A World Health Organization report estimates that exclusive breast-feeding for six months of life would save 220,000 infant lives a year.

Breast-feeding has also been shown to lower childhood obesity by 30 percent. In a city where one in five children is in the obese range, this would equate to almost 16,000 children less likely to have early heart disease and diabetes, and less likely to be bullied.

How about the benefits to the mother?

Weight loss after delivery? Yes.

Lower risks of postpartum depression? Yes.

Less risk of breast and ovarian cancers as well as rheumatoid arthritis and Alzheimer's disease? Yes.

Breast-feeding increases spacing of subsequent births, which helps the health of mother and baby. And mothers who nursed have a 10 percent lower risk of developing the most common cause of death in the U.S.: heart disease.

Breast-feeding also aids children's development. One study showed that children who were breast-fed for at least three months had less likelihood of ADHD. Another recent study reinforced past work finding that toddlers who were breast-fed for more than six months scored higher than formula-fed infants in cognitive, language, and motor development. Yet another recent study, in JAMA Pediatrics, showed that children's IQ rose for each additional month of breast-feeding.

So how are we doing? Exclusive breast-feeding rates at 6 months of age in Pennsylvania are a dismal 16 percent, 40th nationwide.

What to do? Spread awareness of the benefits. Support breast-feeding mothers in workplaces, as the Affordable Care Act requires. Make use of local breast-feeding resources such as WIC offices, the Maternity Care Coalition, and the Philadelphia Department of Health's Breast Feeding Promotion Division, all listed on cap4kids.org/Philadelphia under Food/Nutrition/Breastfeeding.

And, finally, turn back the clock to a time when breast-feeding a newborn for two years was the norm. Our children's health relies on it.