Got milk?

• Author: Saunders, Jennifer B.
• Position: IN BRIEF: MOTHER AND CHILD HEALTH

Awareness of the health benefits and cost savings of breastfeeding continues to spread.

Breastfed babies have fewer cases of diarrhea, ear infections and pneumonia, and are less likely to develop asthma or die from sudden infant death syndrome. Recent research also shows children who are breastfed are less likely to become obese. Mothers benefit as well, with lower risks of developing breast and ovarian cancers.

Although 75 percent of babies in the United States begin life being breastfed, only 31 percent are by the time they reach 9 months. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends babies be breastfed for their first year of life.

Lowering babies' rates of illnesses and infections, of course, also lowers health care costs for both families and states. This has large implications for Medicaid programs, which cover approximately 40 percent of births.

A 2010 study reported in the journal Pediatrics estimated that, if 90 percent of mothers exclusively breastfed for the first six months of their babies' lives, the country would save $13 billion a year and prevent hundreds of infant deaths.

Another study reported in Pediatrics found that for every 1,000 babies who are not breastfed, there are 2,033 more medical office visits, 212 extra days of hospitalizations and 609 excess prescriptions in babies' first years of life. This costs managed care health systems between $331 and $475 for each infant.

All these are reasons why the federal government included elements in the Affordable Care Act to reduce some of the barriers breastfeeding mothers face.

The act requires most employers to provide reasonable break time and a place (other than a bath room) for mothers to...