John and I have sometimes been accused of promoting breastfeeding only for spacing babies. Not so. Those persons have not read our material. Last week we mentioned a mother who breastfed primarily to avoid ovarian cancer. There are multiple good reasons to breastfeed and especially to do Ecological Breastfeeding because the benefits are frequently dose-related.
Mother and baby are one during pregnancy and remain one after birth because of the breastfeeding. God has provided many benefits for both mother and baby, and often these benefits last after the breastfeeding has ceased. We published last week that the benefit of reducing ovarian cancer with a certain duration of breastfeeding lasted 30 years after the breastfeeding ceased! Wow!
Another study published in Pediatrics this year, (AAP News, April), involved 217,112 children under the age of two years in 35 low and middle-income countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. Principal finding: A longer duration of breastfeeding significantly reduced the mortality rates. The researchers stated that “682 children’s lives could have been saved if each mother had breastfed her baby for 6 months.”
They also calculated what their study would mean for a developed country like the United States: exclusive breastfeeding for the first 6 months followed by continued breastfeeding “for at least 12 months of age with the addition of solids could save 721 infant lives annually.” Interestingly, 492 of those lives lost were calculated to be due to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.
Once again, research-based evidence demonstrates the power of breastfeeding in saving lives.
Sheila Kippley
The Seven Standards of Ecological Breastfeeding