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In all countries of the world it is cheaper to breast feed
a baby than to feed the baby formula.
In the United States, one day's supply of a cow's milk based
formula costs approximately $4.00.
Women who are breastfeeding need about 500 extra
kilocalories per day in their diet.
This can be supplied by a peanut butter sandwich and 8
oz. of milk.
In the developing world,
actual formula costs are comparable to those in the United States,
but when a family's income averages only the equivalent of $300 US per month,
formula for one infant could require 45% of the family income.
In a study from Scotland and the United States,
infants who were exclusively breastfed for the first three months
of life are estimated to save $330 to $475 in health care costs
during the first year of life (
Ball, 1999
).
Bartick and Reinhold performed a cost analysis using data from the 2007 AHRQ report "Breastfeeding and Maternal
and Infant Health Outcomes in Developed Countries" (
AHRQ, 2007
). Using direct and indirect costs of
the diseases and the cost of death during childhood from these diseases, they calculated that if 90% of infants
in the United States were exclusively breastfed for 6 months, there would be $13 billion and 911 lives saved
each year. If the Healthy People 2010 goals of 17% exclusive breastfeeding at 6 months of age were reached,
$2.2 billion and 142 lives would be saved each year (
Bartick, 2010
).
Bartick and coworkers also estimated the cost of maternal health issues later in life that are associated with not breastfeeding.
They compared simulations when 90% of mothers would breastfeed until their infant was 1 year of age to outcomes with the current
rate of maternal breastfeeding of 23% at 1 year postpartum.
If studies showing that associations between increased breastfeeding and decreased breast cancer, decreased hypertension and myocardial
infarctions are causal, then increasing breastfeeding rates at 1 year to 90% would prevent 8.5% of maternal heart attacks,
5.5% of maternal hypertension and 4.3% of breast cancer cases.
In a cohort of 1.9 million women, estimated cost savings from the increased breastfeeding rates were $17.4 billion
for premature death, $733 million in direct medical costs and $126 million in indirect morbidity costs (
Bartick, 2013
).
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