For parents any cost saving is good. But for those who are environmentally conscious, breastfeeding is one of the most important things you can do.
Quite apart from the fact that breast milk is so much cheaper, better suited and healthier for your child, there are other costs too-the packaging and manufacturing, the shipping costs using carbon fuels. The same goes for processed baby foods.
There is an article that I think people should read;
The Bottle Baby Scandal in the Third World
SYNOPSIS: With the birthrate in the United States declining, infant formula manufacturers (Nestle and Bristol-Myers in the forefront along with Abbott and American Home Products) began pushing their products on the Third World to ensure their continued profits.
They rely on exploitative and deceptive tactics to sell their products including:
1) giving free samples to mothers so their own milk will dry up, leaving them dependent on expensive formulas;
2) promises of “modernization and heightened status” through use of the formulas, as encouraged by well-financed media campaigns (which include radio and television spots, calendars, billboards, and baby contests),
3) telling new mothers that their own milk is “inappropriate” or may be “unsuccessfully” given to their baby, etc.
The majority of Third World mothers wind up watering down the formulas, using contaminated water, and otherwise malnourishing and infecting their children because they cannot afford to administer formulas in the prescribed way. Parents would have to spend 30-40 percent of their aver age daily wage to feed their babies on this mother’s milk substitute. Malnutrition and denial of natural immunities (which would have been provided had the mother breast-fed) caused by infant formula feeding account for 35,000 deaths and untold brain damage in babies of predominantly Third World countries.
Meanwhile, the profit margins on infant formulas have been documented at up to 72 percent; a billion dollars a year are taken from the Third World countries from the import of these formulas.
UPDATE: As a result of public outrage in the late seventies and through a series of events involving the courts, the U.S. Senate, a group of Catholic nuns, the Securities and Exchange Commission, and concerned citizens, the WHO/UNICEF Code for Marketing Breastmilk Substitutes was drafted, redrafted, and finally adopted by the World Health Assembly in 1981. The - final vote was 118 to 1. The United States cast the sole negative vote.
Despite the U.N. Code, a comprehensive expose published by Mothering (12/22/95) revealed that even today, “Billboards and radio jingles encourage women to use formula in order to raise the healthiest baby. Hospital maternity units in developing nations are sometimes sponsored by formula companies…In addition, babies are routinely fed formula and glucose water, and mothers are sent home with unstimulated breasts and free samples of whatever formula paid for the maternity unit.”
It is now estimated that “one million infant deaths per year can be prevented by using the world’s most economical and effective health protection: breast milk.” But Third World mothers are still not being told this and continue to be bombarded with promotions for formula. Anyone interested in this issue would be well advised to look up the original Mothering article. It is an exceptionally well-researched history of the problem dating back to 1939 when Nestle was selling sweetened condensed milk as infant food despite research showing it was unsafe for infants. It also contains dozens of names and addresses of organizations and individuals who can be contacted for further information.
Unfortunately, the health issue became increasingly complicated in 1997 as increasing numbers of Third World women, infected with the AIDS virus, were transmitting it to their infants through breast milk. Some observers feel that infant formula may be a powerful weapon to reduce childhood deaths from AIDS. Infant formula critics acknowledge that the data are incomplete but say that the vast majority of Third World infants will be imperiled by renewed promotion of bottle-feeding. Still others say it is imperative to find alternatives to breast-feeding including making safe, affordable formula widely available. (New York Times 6/8/97)
This is originally from the New York times, but can be found here;
http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Project Censored/CensoredNews_1977.html
