Salon.com > Ellen Waldman http://www.salon.com Wed, 30 May 2012 09:00:00 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 Breast-feeders deserve a tax break! http://www.salon.com/2001/07/19/breast_tax/ http://www.salon.com/2001/07/19/breast_tax/#comments Thu, 19 Jul 2001 19:26:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/life//feature/2001/07/19/breast_tax When I was eight months pregnant, my obstetrician recommended I attend a class on breast-feeding. Led by a nurse practitioner, the class began in Socratic fashion. Going around the room, the instructor asked each of us to list the advantages of breast-feeding. A number of women mentioned bonding with baby; the few men in the room mumbled something about "natural birth control." The instructor, armed with articles from top medical journals and research undertaken around the world, listed no fewer than 12 health-related benefits enjoyed by infants who nursed.

At this point, it is widely known that breast-feeding confers unique immunological and developmental benefits. Breast-fed infants are at reduced risk of gastrointestinal, respiratory and urinary tract infections, asthma, juvenile rheumatoid arthritis, diabetes, cancer and childhood obesity. Because breast-fed infants are less likely to require prescription drugs, hospitalizations and physician office visits, it is estimated that breast-feeding an infant saves more than $1,000 a year in medical costs.

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