Natural Family Planning International

Breastfeeding Saves Many Many Lives

Did you know….

• that 830,000 babies will not die if every baby is breastfed within the first hour of life?

• that the first milk, colostrum, is “the most potent natural immune system booster known to science”?

• that 22% of newborn deaths could be prevented if breastfed within the first hour after birth, and 16% if breastfed with the first 24 hours?

• that infants who are not breastfed are 15 times more likely to die from pneumonia and 11 times more likely to die of diarrhea than those babies exclusively breastfed for the first 6 months of life?

• that 1.4 million child deaths in 2008 were a result of sub-optimal breastfeeding (where babies were not exclusively breastfed and where breastfeeding did not continue into the second year of life)?  Couldn’t educators and missionaries correct this situation?

• that infants who were not breastfed at all had a 14 times greater risk of death than those infants who were exclusively breastfed?  Those who were partially breastfed had a four times greater risk of death than those exclusively breastfed.

• that 92 million infants under the age of six months (that’s 2 out of 3 babies) are either artificially fed or fed a mixture of breast milk and other foods?  New mothers need to be educated about the value of exclusive breastfeeding for the first 6 months of life.

• that all babies —- no matter where they live —- should be exclusively breastfed for the first 6 months of life and continued to be breastfed for at least 2 years.   It’s “the silver bullet” which saves children’s lives.

I chose to end this series by quoting research statistics from Save the Children, an organization in 120 countries.  Their report, “Superfood for Babies: How overcoming barriers to breastfeed will save children’s lives” (2013) provides excellent research.   As the report states:  “Breastfeeding is an amazing way to protect newborn babies and infants; quite simply, it saves lives.  Breast milk is a superfood for babies and a powerful, natural antidote to hunger and disease.”

Please do what you can to promote breastfeeding in our country and to those missionaries or organizations that serve the poor in other countries and to whom you give your donations.

Sheila Kippley

Breastfeeding in the first hour of life can save 16 out of 100 infants, according to The Lancet, an international organization working on health issues globally. (statistical data 2010 prepared by Sample Registration  System (SRS) of the Census of India, August 2013)

Children who had ADHD (attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder) were less likely to have been breastfed at 3 and 6 months of age than the children without the disorder.  The authors of this study said: “We speculate that prevention, at least partial, of ADHD may be added to the list of the multiple biological advantages of human milk feeding.” (Breastfeeding Medicine, May 2013)

Results of a study support the idea that breastfeeding may confer a measure of protection against persistent stuttering.  The study found that those children who began stuttering at an early age and who were breastfed in infancy were more likely than non-breastfeeding babies to recover from stuttering and return to fluent speech. (Journal of Communication Disorders, July-August 2013)

Breast milk kills cancer cells.  This became known when the scientists at Lund University discovered that breast milk can kill cancer cells.  In 2012 researchers at Lund University and the University of Gothenburg found that breast milk could be used to treat bladder cancer patients.  Dead cancer cells were released in the urine after each treatment.  Now researchers in Siberia found that a particular protein in breast milk kills cancer cells but leaves the healthy cells alone.  “The drug was created based on the milk but its genetic construction was reconstituted to have stronger anti-cancer characteristics. Tests on mice showed the drug was particularly effective on lung and liver cancers.  It was also found to cure encephalitis, an acute inflammation of the brain.”  It was determined that a substance in breast milk called Hamlet (Human Alpha-lactalbumin Made LEthal to Tumour cells) could be used to kill 40 different types of cancer. (International Business Times, Science, October 15, 2013)

Sheila Kippley

A large European study came up with 7 rules to cut the risk of dying.  One of the recommendations was “It is best for mothers to breast feed exclusively for up to six months.”  Women who breastfed for at least 6 months had a reduced risk of death from cancer by 10% and circulatory disease by 17%. (American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, March 27, 2013)

Exclusively breastfed babies whose mothers are HIV positive have a lower percentage of contracting HIV from their mothers compared to babies not breastfed for the first 6 months.  The risk of transmission for babies breastfed is 4% while those not breastfed is 10 times more.  Mixed feedings and cow’s milk irritate the gut, but breastmilk digests easily and does not irritate the gut and so the lining of the gut remains intact and the virus does not get into the blood stream. (Dr. Phillipa Musoke, Dept. of Paediatrics and Child Health at Makerere University, August 2013)

Study showed evidence that non-smoking women who breastfed for at least 6 months can delay the onset of breast cancer by 10 years. This is not true for smoking women who breastfeed.  (Journal of Clinical Nursing, August 14, 2013)

Breastfeeding for one year can increase a child’s IQ by about 4 points.  Longer breastfeeding duration in infancy was associated with a higher vocabulary test score at age 3 and higher intelligence testing at age 7. (JAMA Pediatrics, July 29, 2013)

A study involved 74,785 Australian women who were 45 years or older.  The conclusion was that the longer a woman breastfeeds, the lower are her odds of developing high blood pressure before the age of 64. It was found that among those who breastfed longer, their odds of developing high blood pressure decreased drastically. Extended breastfeeding was strongly encouraged due to the protective effects of breastfeeding which increases with the length of time breastfeeding.  (American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, June 2013)

Sheila Kippley