It is that time of the year again; the first week in August is dedicated to raising awareness on the importance of breastfeeding to ensuring optimal growth and development of infants. Most of the time emphasis is placed on mothers as key stakeholders, while other critical stakeholders are left off the hook. I am referring to policymakers, government agencies, employers of labour and labour unions. This is a big mistake that needs to be corrected immediately.
Our campaign efforts to get mothers to breastfeed will not yield any tangible results if the environment that will enable practice is not first of all created. Enabling environments can be as huge as six months paid maternity leave to having a functional crèche in the office premises so mothers can continue to nurse their babies on resumption. These policy demands might not be considered let alone implemented by the business community or government except they see a direct return on such investments. In this article I will share some reasons why it makes business sense to invest in breastfeeding as a nation, organization, community or individual.
- Increasing exclusive breastfeeding could save the lives of more than 800,000 children globally every year. This means that more children would be able to grow into adulthood and become valuable human resource to the country. In Nigeria, inadequate breastfeeding leads to 103, 742 child deaths each year, which in turn translates to almost $12billion in future economic loses for the country.
- Reduced absenteeism rates. When children are exclusively breastfed they grow up to be healthy adults who are a strong workforce. They will not have to be absent from work due to health challenges. There will be fewer hospitalizations and insurance claims; thereby saving in healthcare expenditure and increasing staff retention rate.
- Breastfeeding could avert over 20,000 maternal deaths each year due to breast cancer. The investment in the mother’s education and career training in the organization will be retained and utilized for the benefit of the organization. If she dies due to breast cancer, the organization would have lost that investment and would need to spend additional resources in recruiting and training a new staff.
- The World Bank states that every one dollar invested in enabling a mother breastfeed generates thirty-five dollars in economic returns. This is a clear profit and businesses should take advantage of this. Providing a crèche or allowing a mother go on breaks for the purpose of nursing her child will increase her mental and emotional wellbeing. When she is emotionally stable and happy, there will be no distractions to her work and she will most definitely giver her all to the organization.
- The Lancet reports that there is a 2.6 point loss in IQ score when children are not breastfed. Breastfeeding plays an unparalleled role in building young children’s brains. Recent analysis suggested that the failure to support women to optimally breastfeed is costing countries billions of dollars in losses to their economies. When cognitive losses are added, inadequate breastfeeding costs the Nigerian economy $12billion per year or 4.1% of its Gross National Income (World Bank, 2016). Such a loss on an annual basis cannot be overlooked especially for an economy that is ranked as a developing one. We cannot afford to be making losses.
In concluding, breastfeeding is one of the smartest investments a country can make to build its future prosperity. $300billion in additional economic gains across lower and middle-income countries as a result of improved cognitive development and child survival rates is a subject every serious nation should pay attention to.
Let’s make breastfeeding and work, work!
