Benefits to Society

Breast milk is readily-available, the perfect temperature, and environment-friendly. Its manufacture does not place additional burden on natural resources such as paper, oil, and aluminum; it does not require packaging, storage, transportation, or refrigeration.

Healthier babies decrease the burden on society’s health care system, cognitive benefits ease the burden on society’s educational system, and immunological benefits impact the corporate world by reducing absenteeism.

Several studies that measured the intelligence quotient (IQ) of breastfed infants compared to formula-fed infants breastfed infants had, on average, a 3.18 higher IQ than formula-fed babies. This jump in IQ would be associated with higher educational achievement, occupational achievement and social adjustment.

A Boston study carried out in part by Harvard Medical School and published in the April 2010 issue of Pediatrics showed that if 80-90% of U.S. women breastfed their newborns for at least six months, between $10.5 and $13 billion would be saved in health care and other costs each year, and more than 700 lives, mostly of newborns, would be spared.