WASHINGTON — A new study calls breast milk “a personalized medicine for infants” and suggests that 800,000 children’s lives could be saved every year if virtually all new mothers breast-fed.
The study, published in The Lancet, says that about 20,000 breast cancer deaths also could be prevented with universal breast-feeding, CBS News reports.
Cesar Victora, the author of the study and a professor at the Federal University of Pelotas in Brazil, said in a statement that the study proves “breast-feeding saves lives and money in all countries, rich and poor alike. Therefore, the importance of tackling the issue globally is greater than ever.”
The issue, as the study sees it, is the relatively small percentage of women who breast-feed. The study finds that only one in three babies in low- and middle-income countries is exclusively breast-fed up to six months, while in the U.S. and other high-income countries, only one in five is breast-fed up to 12 months.
“There is a widespread misconception that the benefits of breast-feeding only relate to poor countries,” Victora said in the statement. “Nothing could be further from the truth.”
In the second part of the study, CBS News reports, World Health Organization researchers claim that the marketing of breast-milk substitutes — a $44 billion worldwide business in 2014 — is undermining efforts to make breast-feeding universal.
“There are known benefits to breast-feeding. It provides really great immunity for a child in the first year of life,” Gynecologist Jennifer Wu tells CBS News.
She adds, however, that “the tone of the article is sort of an indictment.
“We want to encourage breast-feeding but I’ve also seen patients in tears who can’t do it. This article makes it seem like developed countries, rich women, they should all be breast-feeding. But for working women, it’s harder for them to breast-feed.”
Dr. Aaron Caughey, of the Oregon Health & Science University, tells CBS News that mothers should relax: Breast-feeding has benefits, he says, but “the effect of breast-feeding is less than you getting a good night sleep, less than you eating healthfully, less than you having a place to live, less than you exercising regularly.
“I don’t want to downplay it either, but it’s less than many other things that will effect the long-term health of a woman and her child.”
The researchers analyzed data from 28 studies.
