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Breastfeeding in Belize: Its economic value
– Reported, January 26, 2013
Breastmilk is an important rescurce that is often not considered for its economic values. In order to estimate the value of breastmilk fat individual countries, Nurture/Center to Prevent Childhood Malnutrition, developed a workbook to help policy makers analyze information on this issue.This report analyzes the economic value of breastfeeding for the country of Belize. Breastmilk provides an economic resource in Belize, especially in rural areas.
Nevertheless, only 10% of urban women and 48% of rural women with infants 0-3.9 months of age breastfeed exclusively, implying that substantial additional benefits could be realized if more mothers exclusively breastfed during the first 4-6 months and continued breastfeeding for one year or longer. This report presents information on the costs and savings associated with current levels of breastfeeding and bottle feeding at the national, public sector, hospital, and household levels. The economic value of breastfeeding is calculated by measuring the costs that would be incurred if all women bottle fed minus the present costs of promoting and supporting breastfeeding.
Costs of breastfeeding include the costs of promoting breastfeeding, any loss of revenue from industries that produce breastmilk substitutes, and the costs to women in time and work opportunities. Estimating the costs in terms of women’s time or lost work opportunities is difficult in the absence of empirical research. However, the time costs to women (in terms of time spent breastfeeding rather than in other activities) may be offset by the time costs to women of seeking treatment for childhood illness that could be prevented by breastfeeding. Furthermore, if the mother is primarily responsible for bottle feeding, the time for breastfeeding may not differ greatly from the time required to sterilize the bottles, mix the formula, and feed the infant. Hence it is assumed that there is no significant net overall cost to breastfeeding in terms of additional time.
In Belize, the costs of breastfeeding are primarily those associated with breastfeeding promotion, which is conducted by the Breast is Best League (BIB), a non-profit agency, in conjunction with the Ministry of Health. Information from expenditures of BIB was used to estimate costs of breastfeeding promotion. BIB trains breastfeeding counselors and health professionals, counsels mothers, and promotes breastfeeding through public education and mass media programs.
The direct costs of bottle feeding are the expenses that hospitals and households incur to purchase supplies for bottle feeding, including breastmilk substitutes and equipment (bottles and nipples). Governments use valuable foreign exchange and pay interest for its use as debt service on foreign exchange associated with the import of breastmilk substitutes. Indirect costs of inadequate breastfeeding include excess morbidity among bottle-fed infants, caused primarily by diarrhea and acute respiratory infections that could be prevented by breastfeeding. Savings from breastfeeding result also from reductions in fertility due to the increased durations of amenorrhea associated with breastfeeding, thus reducing pregnancies and the costs of births and contraceptive supplies.
In addition to the costs of purchasing breastmilk substitutes, there are costs to the health services in Belize because of the additional illnesses contracted by infants who are not exclusively breastfed during the first 4-6 months of life and those who are not breastfed through one year. Such infants are more likely to become ill with diarrhea and acute respiratory infections. Aside from preventing illnesses among children, breastfeeding is associated with reductions in fertility among women not practicing contraception.
Breastfeeding represents a major economic resource in Belize. Breastfeeding provides an important food resource, which says the nation foreign exchange that would be needed to import breastmilk substitutes. Additional benefits of breastfeeding include reduced illnesses due to diarrhea and acute respiratory infections and delayed return to fertility.
CREDITS:
Sandra Huffman, K. Mou-tafa Toure, Eva Middleton
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