A cost-analysis study shows that if more moms in the u-s breast-fed their babies, more lives and more medical costs would be saved.
Fox 40’s Jessica Kadlub talked to one local mom who’s so dedicated to breast-feeding she’s not only helping her son live a healthier life, but the lives of hundreds of other babies.
Meet 10 and a half month old Tyler Stanleyhe loves to golf, play with his mother Karen, and of course drink breast milk.
“It just seems like there are so many benefits, benefits for tyler, benefits for me, it’s cheaper, it’s convenient.” Says Stanley.
Karen is part of the 12 percent of moms in america who continue to breastfeed their baby after 6 months, but it wasn’t always easy.
According to Stanley, “you know the first 6 weeks of breastfeeding were a little tricky, but once we got our rhythm down, it’s wonderful, and now he knows what milk means.”
A recent study by the journal of pediatrics found that if 90 percent of moms like stanley were to continue breast feeding for at least a half a year, the lives of nearly 900 babies would be saved, along with 13 billion dollars in medical costs.
Lactation consult Laura Walker says that makes breast feeding a public health issue not a lifestyle choice.
“It’s just like smoking or anything else we talk to out parents about,” says Walker, “or our public about on how to be healthier, you know if it comes to heart disease and exercise and all of those things, breast feeding is right up there in that same category.”
Walker says breast milk is boosting tyler’s immune system and is helping to reduce respiratory and gastro-intentestinal infections that could plague him in his first year of life. Breast milk is living fluid that has living cells that help to protect a babies health.
However, Stanley isn’t only keeping her own son healthy she’s donating her breast milk to the Wakemed Mother’s Milk Bank in Raleigh, North Carolina.
“So far I have donated approximately 900 ounces,” boasts Karen, “and i’d like to donate ten gallons.”
All this breast milk will be donated to help sick and pre-mature babies. To Stanley “…it is more than a donation, it is a piece of me going to any baby in the u.s. or haiti or wherever.” But Stanley says other moms shouldn’t feel guilty if they’re unable to continue breastfeeding because they have to go back to work. She’s encouraged the government is now requiring large employers to provide private places for working moms to pump breast milk.
“I hope that with more awareness that more people will decide to donate, or decide to breast feed, or to breastfeed longer,” she remarks. And what does tyler think? According to Karen, “he thinks it’s great, he’s been very, very generous!”