In the US, breast-feeding is an option. But a recent report stated nearly 900 babies would be saved each year along with billions of dollars, if 90 percent of the US women fed their babies breast milk.
In poor, rural Congo, breast-feeding is a necessity. There is no electricity for refrigerators. There is no store to purchase formula. There is just no money for such luxuries. Poverty eliminate the other options.
Poverty, also, eliminate some of the basic necessities of life. Many Congolese women and children lack good nutritious and healthy food.
Study: Breast-feeding would save lives, money - Yahoo! News.
The lives of nearly 900 babies would be saved each year, along with billions of dollars, if 90 percent of U.S. women fed their babies breast milk only for the first six months of life, a cost analysis says.
Those startling results, published online Monday in the journal Pediatrics, are only an estimate. But several experts who reviewed the analysis said the methods and conclusions seem sound.
"The health care system has got to be aware that breast-feeding makes a profound difference," said Dr. Ruth Lawrence, who heads the American Academy of Pediatrics' breast-feeding section.
The findings suggest that there are hundreds of deaths and many more costly illnesses each year from health problems that breast-feeding may help prevent. These include stomach viruses, ear infections, asthma, juvenile diabetes, Sudden Infant Death Syndrome and even childhood leukemia.
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