The New South Wales, Australia, newspaper The Age reports on a new study of the value of breastfeeding. If you’re interested, they think it’s worth $2.2 billion ($1.7B USD) annually, in Australia alone.
The breastfeeding report relies on economic analyses by Australian National University-based Dr Julie Smith, who calculated Australian mothers produce about 34 million litres of breast milk a year. The milk was then costed based on its market value in “milk banks” in Europe.
Dr Smith estimates the “capital stock value” – the entire present and future worth – of breastfeeding to be $37 billion. If Australian women breastfed according to WHO standards, that value would increase to $100 billion, Dr Smith said.
“Economics is about the efficient use of resources,” she said. “At the moment we’re wasting resources on producing (formula) milk, and on pediatricians looking after babies made sick by not being breastfed.”
(The recommendation of the World Health Organization, btw, is to nurse babies at least until two years old.)
HT: CaroLLLinaLeaders and my wife Melanie
