Boosting length of breastfeeding could save NHS more than �40 million every year — ScienceDaily
The numbers add up to a strong economic case to invest in services to support mums to carry on breastfeeding, they conclude. In common with many other high income countries, breastfeeding rates in the UK are low, and to find out if boosting these could cut healthcare costs by improving mother and child health, the researchers focused on five priority diseases. They looked at the financial impact of not breastfeeding on gastrointestinal and lower respiratory tract infections; the ear infection otitis media in infants; the potentially lethal gut disorder necrotising enterocolitis in preterm babies; and lifetime risk of breast cancer in mothers…