The Might of Mother's Milk (MoMM)!

Greetings, dear young parents!
This year, we have a lot of data from the world renowned medical journal Lancet , which I am sharing here today. If we could achieve:
i) 100% early initiation of breastfeeding in the first hour and
ii) 100% exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months
iii) Good home cooked food to complement breastfeeding from six months of age to two years of
age;
then these would be the effects seen in India:

• we could reduce1,56000 child deaths every year
• prevent 3,436,560 episodes of pneumonia
• prevent 3,900,000 episodes of diarrhea
• increase average IQ level by 3 points across all income groups.  India can add 0.6285 billion USD (approx. INR 4300 crore) annually to its gross national income, through the improved IQ. (Studies show that breastfeeding translates to better IQ, which in turn translates to better earnings in later life.)  
• Breastfeeding has the potential to reduce type -II diabetes by 35%
• Breastfeeding can reduce obesity by 26% in the 5-17 age group
• Environmental impact : Breastfeeding is a zero-emission, zero-waste process. In India, the sale of milk formulas leads to the emission of 111,226 tonnes of green house gases. (In China, this is 2,249,287 tonnes.)
• It can prevent 4915 deaths due to breast cancer (in the mother) out of a total of 70,000. (Globally, breastfeeding can prevent 20,000 deaths from breast cancer per year)

I congratulate the Government of India for:

i) starting the program MAA for the early initiation of breastfeeding and

ii) approving 26 weeks of maternity leave (by Rajya Sabha) for all working mothers, including the private sector (but not the unorganized sector yet).

SAY YES TO BREASTFEEDING! SAY NO TO FORMULA AND BOTTLES!