If human milk feeding were a type of financial investment, you wouldn’t be able to keep investors out of it.
The World Health Organization (WHO), in connection with the Global Breastfeeding Collective and UNICEF, just released a new advocacy brief that includes a compelling argument for breastfeeding support as one of the highest returns on investment in regard to human capital, health, and quality of life.
The document, Investing in Breastfeeding Saves Lives and Money, outlines how increasing support for direct human milk feeding in health systems could generate returns of as much as $59 for every $1 spent, over 10 years.
Hold there for a moment, and let’s play with comparing this 59 to 1 return to investing.
If we view that like a return on investment over 10 years, that gives us an annualized ROI of 50.34% which is simply amazing.
Compare that to the average stock market return (10%), but with much less risk and more certainty than the volatile market. Bonds, by comparison, usually return 3 to 6%. Even the growth rate for a small business is considered “fast” at 15-25% per year. Breastfeeding looks like a rather good investment, financially.
Additionally, there is the human cost that can’t be measured economically, such as the estimated 138,000 avoidable maternal deaths and 383,000 avoidable child deaths every year.
Put into perspective, that’s:
- 1 mother every 3.8 minutes, and
- 1 young child every 82 seconds
who would probably live if we met global breastfeeding recommendations.
While it is true that the majority of these estimated deaths are in low-resource countries, emergencies often create or mimic low resource settings, and can occur anywhere – even in well-resourced American cities. Also, the many other benefits of breastfeeding are universal, and not dependent on where someone lives.
This all makes breastfeeding an excellent investment in multiple ways. Which raises the question: what will it take to invest more into breastfeeding?
Maybe this technical document can help bridge that gap with certain people.
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