Read time: 5 mins
Based on The economic cost consequences of suboptimal infant and young child feeding practices: a scoping review, by Briana Jegier, Julie Smith, and Melissa Cartick, published November 2024.
Breastfeeding less than recommended has larger national economic impacts than previously thought, according to research from ANU National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health. A global review of studies has shown that if more mothers were enabled to breastfeed exclusively and for longer, Australia and many other countries would save billions of dollars a year.
Read time: 5 mins
Based on The economic cost consequences of suboptimal infant and young child feeding practices: a scoping review, by Briana Jegier, Julie Smith, and Melissa Cartick, published November 2024.
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‘Optimal breastfeeding’ in early childhood lowers rates of illness and death in mothers and children and correlates with higher cognitive function later in life. These health benefits lead to important economic gains.
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Experts from ANU found that many past studies underestimated the positive economic effects of breastfeeding. In studies that did account for those effects, estimates soared to a global figure of US$300 billion annually. In Australia, higher national breastfeeding rates could be worth US$6 billion (A$9 billion), or 0.6 per cent of our gross national income each year.
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Alongside fully implementing the Australian National Breastfeeding Strategy and ending inappropriate promotion of breastmilk substitutes, policymakers could consider policies that raise breastfeeding support standards in maternity care and support breastfeeding in workplaces.
Breastfeeding could be even more economically advantageous than previously thought.
According to a landmark review from ANU National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health, past studies have underestimated the economic impact of ‘suboptimal breastfeeding’
Suboptimal breastfeeding is “breastfeeding less exclusively than recommended, or stopping breastfeeding sooner than recommended.” It includes not breastfeeding at all.
While not all infants and toddlers can or will be breastfed, doing so according to health authority recommendations lowers risk of illness in mothers and children, leading to better population health overall.
Many studies over the years have attempted to quantify, in dollar terms, the economic gains of breastfeeding (and, conversely, forgone gains from suboptimal breastfeeding).
The review analysed 36 studies published between 1996 and 2023 and published in collaboration with experts in the United States.
Until recently, economic studies on feeding infants focused on the price of formula and extra short-term medical costs in infancy.
But now, when lifetime human capital losses – like premature death of mothers and infants and cognitive deficits associated with poor infant nutrition – are accounted for, this number increases to as much US$300 billion annually.
It noted that in Australia, which recently introduced a world-leading National Breastfeeding Strategy, this means failing to reverse falling breastfeeding rates could mean forgoing A$9 billion a year, or 0.6 per cent of gross national income.
The findings indicate that reducing barriers to breastfeeding would have a bigger economic flow-on effect than previously thought.
In collaboration with public health economists, policymakers could investigate measures to supplement the strategy that:
Changes like this would reflect the latest evidence, protect Australia’s population health, and contribute to creating the conditions our economy needs to grow.
“According to a landmark review from ANU National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health, past studies have underestimated the economic impact of suboptimal breastfeeding, and gains from improvements.”
