Every year there are hundreds of deaths and costly illnesses that develop and get the best of babies all around the world. However, we can reduce this number and the amount of money spent on saving them by pushing the importance of breast feeding a new born for their first six months of their lives.
The media and society has always had an uphill battle against saving unborn babies lives. The solution to saving those certain lives has been pushed with the idea of adoption or abstaining from abortion. What if that’s not the only way to save lives?
For the babies that get born into this life, breast feeding is proven to save more than 900 lives per year compared to babies that get bottle fed with formula. Maybe that should be the more realistic change that can be made and given more effort towards; breast feeding. Surprisingly, it is not just mothers that can help make the difference, but the government as well.
For instance, with the new health care changes taking place it is required that certain large businesses must offer private places for a working mother to be able to breast pump. This should help increase the number of breast feeding working mothers in the U.S. because they will now be aloud a time and a place to take care of their personal business while at work.
On April 1, a new provision enacted by the Joint Commission, a hospital accrediting agency; hospitals may be evaluated on their efforts to ensure that newborns are only fed breast milk before being sent home. If nurses can help a mother and baby build a bond and get used to breast feeding before being released, it only makes sense that the number of breast fed babies will increase.
These are both good ways the government is getting involved, but there can of course be more ways than just those. It is so important for a child to get the nutrients that is only available from breast milk; it creates anti bodies that help a child fight diseases and make them healthier, but also saves a family money by not buying formula or having to pay for doctors visits that could have been prevented with the natural milk from a mother.
The government needs to continue to educate our society of the importance of breast feeding, and find ways to make it easier for a mother to feed their child in the most natural form, whether they are working or not. We need to try and change "work" or being too "busy" from being a reason that breast feeding gets neglected.