Governments Recognize the Need to Breastfeed

(Newswire.net — December 19, 2017) Cheyenne, Wyoming — Breastfeeding is an age old and essential feeding process. The created bond and the all around health benefits are well documented. However, as society has evolved and modernized, many people have come to view nursing through unfavorable lenses. It is this shift in thought governments are now combating to increase the number of mother’s opting to breastfeed instead of employing instant formulas as a supplement or replacement. 

In America and Australia only, 16% of mothers exclusively breast feed during the first six months of their baby’s lives, says the U.S. Health Ministry and Australian Breastfeeding Foundation. In contrast, more than 50% of mothers nurse exclusively for the same period in Brazil. In fact, breastfeeding is so popular in the South American country that nursing mothers are even producing extra milk for donation to the national milk banks which passes on the supply to other new moms who are unable to produce for themselves. 

“For a small investment, we’re getting a huge return,” said Joao Arigio Guerrade Almeida, pioneering chemist of the Brazilian Milk Bank Network. “We get better survival rates and overall health for babies that end up saving the health system money, and we get to reach out not only to mothers of premature babies, but all new mothers and teach them about breastfeeding.” 

Thanks to the assertive promotion of breastfeeding and the banning of instant formula advertising in Brazil, the country’s infant mortality rate has gone from 63.2 deaths for each 1,000 births to only 19.6 deaths per 1,000 births in 2013. With such success in supporting nursing mother’s, Brazil has been instrumental in establishing a similar framework in more than 15 Latin American and African countries plus Spain and Portugal.  

Meanwhile in Asia, the government of Hong Kong stated in a press release regarding breastfeeding promotion on their Special Administrative Region website that “the aim is to promote breastfeeding as the norm for babycare widely accepted by the community” and that they have been “proactively promoting the provision of babycare facilities in government offices and public places.” 

The value and impact magnitude of breast milk is wonderfully simple. Choosing to provide nature’s best to an infant saves money and lives. The responsibility of safeguarding infants rests in the health and choices of their mother so milk production quality is crucial. 

 Just as eating right and exercise are points to note, the frequency and volume of alcohol consumed is also to be closely monitored. On the rare occasions that a drink is had, mothers ought to have at hand a breast milk analysis kit such as the HealthyWiser™ PureMilk™ alcohol detecting strip to test their octane levels and be informed with 99.9% accuracy as to when it’s safe to resume nursing.