Cost Effectiveness of Breastfeeding
in the United States 

If exclusive breastfeeding was practiced for the first 12 weeks of an infant’s life:

• $2.16 billion annually would be saved because of less illness and disease country wide.
• $3.02 billion annually would be saved from household expenses because of the reduced costs of formula purchasing, family planning benefits and decreased health care expenditures country wide.

If an infant is breastfed for at least 6 months:

• $205 would be saved per infant by the HMO, representing an almost 10% reduction in health care cost in the first year of life (for the first year of life each breastfed infant cost HMO $2,040 vs. non breastfeeding infants cost $2,245).
• $491,000 would be saved annually in health care costs by the HMO is 46% vs. the current 26% of infants breastfed for the first six months of life.

If all of the women who participate in the Women, Infant, and Children Supplemental Feeding Program (WIC) breastfed for one month:

• $30 million would be saved in formula costs by the US Government.
• 75% of of the women who participate in WIC breastfed for 3 months.
• $48 million would be saved.

If a woman breastfeeds for the first year of the infant’s life:

• $683 in the first year of life per infant would be saved from the family's budget because of not needing to purchase breastmilk substitutes.

If working mothers breastmilk feed their infants for 100 work days:

• 27.3% less absenteeism would take place from work.
• 35.7% less health care claims would be filed.

Specific references available upon request.  Visit web site at www.BreastfeedLA.org for more information.

Use of Breastfeeding Fact Sheets developed by The Breastfeeding Task Force of Greater Los Angeles

The Breastfeeding Task Force of Greater Los Angeles has developed the Breastfeeding Fact Sheets as a service, and site visitors are welcomed and encouraged to use them. If the Breastfeeding Fact Sheets are used "as is", we request that the Breastfeeding Task Force of Greater Los Angeles be credited. If the Breastfeeding Fact Sheets are modified or adapted, we request that we be credited as "adapted from ...", and that a copy of the adapted material be sent to us. Site visitors are also encouraged to draw upon and use the information contained in the Breastfeeding Fact Sheets as resource material to support their efforts to promote, support and protect breastfeeding.