Despite severe malnutrition among children, which erstwhile Indian PM Dr Manmohan Singh called a "national shame", India has still not prioritised breastfeeding. Credit: Neeta Lal/IPS

By Neeta Lal
NEW DELHI, Jun 1 2016 (IPS)

The recent launch of Amaara, New Delhi’s first human milk bank, has been greeted with much cheering. The initiative endorses the long-term goal of reducing infant mortality and addresses the critical issue of lack of mothers’ milk for physically fragile newborns in India’s capital city.

The service couldn’t have come a day too soon. India, a nation of 1.25 billion people, has the world’s highest number of low birth weight babies, with a critically high Neo-natal Mortality Rate (NMR) rate described as deaths in the period of 0-28 days per thousand live births. India witnessed 28 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2013 and an Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) of 40 in the age 0-1 year per thousand live births according to the Annual Report of India’s Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

Of the 26 million babies born in India every year, one million babies are blighted before they reach the age of one month. Despite reducing child mortality – from 2.3 million deaths of children under the age of five in 2001 to 1.4 million in 2012 – India still accounts for 20 percent of infant mortality globally.

Many of these needless tragedies can be avoided, say doctors, if the little ones are nourished with mother’s milk. “Feeding these babies with donor breast milk through milk banks can have the single largest impact on reducing child mortality,” says Bhavdeep Singh, CEO, Fortis Healthcare, a pan-India hospital chain which launched Amaara in collaboration with the Breast Milk Foundation.

Breast milk, described as ‘superfood’ for newborns, contains “bioactive components” which protect them against life-threatening illnesses, serious infections and other complications related to pre-term birth which commercially available formula milk can’t, say doctors. The World Health Organisation (WHO) recommends that the best option for a baby who cannot be breastfed is milk expressed from its own or from another healthy mother. Children who are fed mother’s milk are also less vulnerable to certain non-communicable diseases and grow up to be better workers, says WHO.

“Keeping in mind the complications associated with formula feeding and some mothers’ inability to breastfeed, there’s a strong need to establish human milk banks. It’s a boon for high-risk newborns who are unable to receive the nurturing care a mother provides, ” adds Singh.

Donor banks collect, screen, process, store and prescribe donated human milk to babies who need such milk donated by lactating mothers not biologically related to them. The milk is either extracted manually or with breast pumps and collected by trained staff in labelled and sterile containers. It is transported to the banks under cold storage conditions, and immediately frozen at 20 degrees centigrade, after which a sample is taken for its culture. If the bacterial culture is negative, then the milk is pasteurized for future use.

Who can donate milk? Healthy lactating moms of term or preterm babies who are not on any medications, and have had no significant illnesses in the past or present, can do so. However, it is only the excess milk (milk obtained after fully feeding the donor’s own child) that can be donated.

According to the WHO and UNICEF, globally only 20 per cent of working women are able to breast feed their children – a must for at least for one to one-and-a-half years after birth. A study has indicated that babies not breastfed fall ill more often and have extra days of hospitalisation as well as extra prescriptions in the first year of their lives.

In developing countries like India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and several others in the Southeast Asian region — where health resources are poor — the situation is especially dire.

Although globally human milk banking is a common practice, in India, only 14 such banks currently exist, as per the Indian Academy of Paediatrics. This compares poorly to other developing nations like Brazil. Brazil hosts 210 such banks which have helped reduce its malnutrition level by 73 per cent.

India’s poor record in this field is surprising because Mumbai was where the first mother’s milk bank in Asia was established in 1989. Experts attribute the paucity of this service to a lack of public awareness and promotion of formula milk by the industry.

Customs and changing social dynamics too play a catalytic role. “In the villages, it’s considered ominous to feed the child with the milk extracted from another woman,” says Anjali Yadav, a volunteer with Save the Child Foundation. “In the cities, we’re finding that women have become increasingly career-oriented. In their rush to rejoin work post-childbirth, their breastfeeding plans get aborted.”

Doctors caution that there are serious health ramifications for women who avoid breastfeeding. These women are apparently at a potential risk of developing cancer at a later stage in life. Studies have proved that mothers who suffer from breast cancer during the pre-menopausal period may have contracted this due to skipping breastfeeding. Women who usually breast feed in their early thirties are more protected as compared to those who do so later in life.

Pratibha Jain, 32, a new mother, has been making life-saving withdrawals for her daughter Kareena, who was born prematurely, from Divya Mother Milk Bank at the Panna Dhai Hospital in Udaipur in the desert state of Rajasthan.

“I’ve enough breast milk during daytime. But night feeds have been a challenge so I’ve to rely on donated bank milk,” she told IPS. “The donated milk has helped me save my only child’s life.”

Interestingly, though the concept of human milk banks is a relatively new one, donation of breast milk from one woman to an unrelated infant goes back centuries. Earlier, weak infants with mothers were breastfed by a “wet nurse”. Rules governing wet nursing came about in 1800 BC. However, by the 15th century, wet nursing became infamous due to the spread of syphilis.

Human milk banking has faced similar challenges largely due to the aggressive promotion of infant formula milk by the industry. In addition, since the 1970s, a fear of transmission of viruses, including HIV in body fluids, also created public anxiety about breast milk.

Despite severe malnutrition among children, which erstwhile Indian PM Dr Manmohan Singh called a “national shame”, India has still not prioritised breastfeeding. Lack of legislation has only made matters worse. Currently the only law that regulates breastfeeding in India is the Infant Milk Substitutes, Feeding Bottles and Infant Foods (Regulation of Production, Supply and Distribution) formulated in 1992 which prohibits advertisement of infant milk substitutes.

However, the lack of rigorous implementation of even this solo law has resulted in its violation by the industry players.

“Also, there’s been no proactive promotion of breast milk or milk banks by the government through mass sensitization campaigns,” Dr. Kirti Saxena, Senior Paediatrician, Max Hospitals, told IPS. “Initiatives such as milk banks are commendable, but unless they’re incorporated in national policy and rigorously enforced by all stakeholders, their impact will be limited. The future of our children is at stake.”

These Haitian schoolchildren are being supported by a WFP school feeding programme designed to end malnutrition which, for many countries, can be a double burden where overweight and obesity exist side by side with under-nutrition. Credit: UN Photo/Albert González Farran

By Gloria Schiavi
ROME, Nov 23 2014 (IPS)

Not only do 805 million people go to bed hungry every day, with one-third of global food production (1.3 billion tons each year) being wasted, there is another scenario that reflects the nutrition paradox even more starkly: two billion people are affected by micronutrients deficiencies while 500 million individuals suffer from obesity.

The first-ever Global Nutrition Report, a peer-reviewed publication released this month, and figures from the Rome-based U.N. Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) highlight a multifaceted and complex phenomenon behind malnutrition.

“The double burden of malnutrition [is] a situation where overweight and obesity exist side by side with under-nutrition in the same country”, according to Anna Lartey, FAO’s Nutrition Director. “And we are seeing it in lots of the countries that are developing economically. These are the countries that are going through the nutrition transition”."The double burden of malnutrition [is] a situation where overweight and obesity exist side by side with under-nutrition in the same country. And we are seeing it in lots of the countries that are developing economically. These are the countries that are going through the nutrition transition” – Anna Lartey, FAO’s Nutrition Director

Beside hunger then, governments and development organisations have also been forced to start tackling over-nutrition.

“While under-nutrition still kills almost 1.5 million women and children every year, growing rates of overweight and obesity worldwide are driving rising diseases like cancer, heart disease, stroke and diabetes”, Francesco Branca, Director of Nutrition for Health and Development at the World Health Organisation (WHO), explained in a statement.

The solution does not lie in the realm of science, health or agriculture alone. It requires a cross sectorial and multi dimensional approach that includes education, women’s empowerment, market regulation, technological research and, above all, political commitment.

For this reason, representatives of governments, multilateral institutions, civil society and the private sector met in Rome for the Second International Conference on Nutrition (ICN2) that took place at FAO headquarters on Nov. 19-21. Jointly organised by FAO and WHO, the conference came 22 years after its first edition and, unfortunately, addressed the same unsolved problem.

Malnutrition, in all its forms, has repercussions on the capability of people to live a full life, work, care for their children, be productive, generate a positive cycle and improve their living conditions. Figures from the Global Nutrition Report estimate that the cost of malnutrition is around four to five percent of national GDP, suggesting that prevention would be more cost-effective.

With the goal of improving nutrition through the implementation of evidence-based policies and effective international cooperation, ICN2 produced two documents to help governments and stakeholders head in the right direction: the Rome Declaration on Nutrition and a Framework for Action.

The conference also heard a strong call for accountability and for the strengthening of nutrition in the post-2015 development agenda.

Flavio Valente, who represented civil society organisations at ICN2, remarked that “the current hegemonic food system and agro-industrial production model are not only unable to respond to the existing malnutrition problems but have contributed to the creation of different forms of malnutrition and the decrease of the diversity and quality of our diets.”

This position was shared by many speakers, who stressed the negative impact that advertising of unhealthy food has, mainly on children.

According to a participant from Chile, calling obesity a non-communicable disease is misleading, because it spreads through the media system very effectively. He added that Chile currently risks being brought before the World Trade Organisation (WTO) by multinational food companies for its commitment to protect public health by regulating the advertising of certain food.

This happens in a country where 60 percent of people suffer from over-nutrition and one obese person dies every hour, according to the permanent representative of Chile at FAO, Luis Fernando Ayala Gonzalez.

In an address to the conference, Queen Letizia of Spain also acknowledged the responsibility of the private sector: “It is necessary to help the economic interests converging towards public health. It is worth remembering that no country in the world has been able to reverse the epidemic of obesity in all age groups. None.”

The outcome of ICN2 brought consensus around a plan of action and some key targets.

Educating children about healthy habits and women who are in charge of feeding the family was recognised as crucial, as was breastfeeding, which should be encouraged (through paid maternity leave and breastfeeding facilities in the workplace), and the need to empower women working in agriculture.

Supporting small and family farming would also give people better opportunities to eat local, fresh and seasonal produce as well as fruit and vegetables, reducing the consumption of packaged, processed food that is often low in nutrients, vitamins and fibres and high in calories, sugar, salt and fats.

However, teaching people how to eat is not enough, if they cannot easily access quality food – hence the need for relevant policies targeting the food chain and distribution.

Initiatives like the Fruit in Schools programme proposed by New Zealand go in the right direction, especially when implemented within a coordinated policy that promotes physical activity and a healthy lifestyle that fights consumption of alcohol and tobacco.

(Edited by Phil Harris)

Lindiwe Dlamini nurses her six-week-old baby boy. Credit: Mantoe Phakathi/IPS

By Mantoe Phakathi
MBABANE, Jan 7 2014 (IPS)

Smiling as she breastfeeds her six-week-old baby boy, Lindiwe Dlamini, 38, is optimistic about his future.

Dlamini, who is HIV-positive, is determined that her baby will not be infected. The mother of three – who conceived her first two children when she was HIV-negative – was on antiretroviral therapy (ART) when she delivered a healthy boy in November.

Now she is feeding him on breast milk and nothing else for six months – advice she received during antenatal care. She knows mother’s milk is more nutritious and carries antibodies.

“Breastfeeding is the most affordable method for me because I’m unemployed, but I wasn’t so sure considering my status,” Dlamini told IPS.

Half of all new episodes of HIV transmission to children occur during breastfeeding if mothers are not on ART, says the Joint United Nations Programme on AIDS (UNAIDS).

Alarmingly, although Swaziland recorded a 38-percent decline in new HIV infections among children between 2009-2012, seven out of 10 mothers here do not receive antiretroviral medicines during breastfeeding to prevent infecting their babies, says the 2013 UNAIDS Progress Report.

Swaziland has one of the highest HIV infection rates in the world, at 26 percent of people aged 15 to 49.

A domestic worker who had to quit her job after falling pregnant, Dlamini relies on the income from her partner, a construction worker. Buying formula milk would strain the family budget. A 900-gramme tin costs 130 emangaleni (about 13 dollars) and lasts a month.

Dlamini breastfed her first two babies without any problem, but faced a dilemma with the third, or so she thought: “The worst thing that could happen to me is to infect my baby with HIV.”

Help came through a mentor mother, Jabu Mkhaliphi, who works for the NGO Mothers to Mothers. An HIV-positive mother who breastfed her three-year-old daughter, Mkhaliphi allays the fears of pregnant women.

“No mother wants to infect their baby,” Mkhaliphi told IPS. She takes them through her experience and, as a result, most of her clients, like Dlamini, embrace exclusive breastfeeding despite their initial fear.

Yet many women living with HIV are sceptical about breastfeeding in this impoverished southern African country. Only 17 percent of children aged four to five months are exclusively breastfed, says the most recent Demographic Health Survey.

And, with a median duration of mixed breastfeeding of 17 months, there are many chances for HIV infection.

Percy Chipepera, director of the Swaziland Infant Nutrition Action Network (SINAN), links this trend to the discovery, back in the 1990s, that breast milk carries the virus, when HIV positive mothers were discouraged from breastfeeding.

“During this period, a lot of children died of diarrhoea and malnutrition,” said Chipepera.

Some deaths could be attributed to poor hygiene when preparing the feeding bottles, leading to gastrointestinal infections, while many parents could not afford formula milk, which led to malnourishment, he explained.

A glimmer of hope was restored when ART was introduced around 2005. ART lowers the mother’s viral load significantly, making breastfeeding, if done properly and exclusively, quite safe.

Being at body temperature, breast milk will not damage the baby’s delicate mucosa lining up its digestive system. However, hot food can cause microscopic lesions through which the virus could enter.

The good news: if the mother’s viral load is low or undetectable thanks to ART, the chances of transmission are greatly reduced.

The art and science of breastfeeding

Exclusive breastfeeding – giving the baby nothing but breast milk – for six months is recommended by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), by SINAN and by the Ministry of Health.

However, exclusive breastfeeding is not that simple for many mothers. Grandmothers and aunties may believe that babies are not satisfied by breast milk alone and must be given supplementary food or ritual herbal teas.

Dr. Florence Naluyinda-Kitabire, an HIV/AIDS specialist with UNICEF, attributes these practices to poor understanding of breastfeeding.

Among the things that mothers should learn, said Naluyinda-Kitabire, is that babies should not be removed from one breast until they have dried it out.

“There is a lot of art and science around breastfeeding,” she said. “We need to educate not only the mothers but their families.”

One common mistake is that mothers remove the infant from the one breast soon after they have finished the liquid milk, leaving the hind milk. Yet the hind milk fills up the baby because it has fat.

“While HIV/AIDS is responsible for the decline in breastfeeding, other issues need to be addressed,” said Naluyinda-Kitabire.

One is the misconception, not only in Swaziland, that exclusive breastfeeding is for HIV-positive mothers. Naluyinda-Kitabire stressed that all babies, irrespective of the mother’s HIV status, should be breastfed because it is good for their health.

On average, exclusive breastfeeding by Swazi mothers lasts only three months, reports the 2010 Swaziland Multi-Indicator Cluster Survey.

Part of the reason is that mothers must return to work after 12 weeks. The International Labour Organisation, through the Maternity Protection Convention, which Swaziland has not yet ratified, calls for a minimum maternity leave of 14 weeks and for workplace support for nursing mothers.

Another deterrent is the aggressive commercial marketing of formula as a good substitute for breast milk. The government is considering a Public Health Bill to limit false claims in formula marketing, and to force manufacturers to explain, on the tin, in the local language, SiSwati, that breast is best.

Dhaka maternity hospitals encourage exclusive breastfeeding. Credit: Sujan-map/IPS

By Naimul Haq
DHAKA, Oct 30 2012 (IPS)

Bangladesh’s achievement in raising exclusive breastfeeding rates for infants under six months from 43 percent to 64 percent, over the last five years, is said to be the result of a determined campaign by government and non-governmental organisations (NGOs).

At the Shaheed Suhrawardy Medical College and Hospital in the national capital, Razia Khatun, 36, is being assisted with feeding her eight-day-old infant. “I was told to start breastfeeding within the first hour of my child’s birth but failed and so I am back here for help.”

Shahida Banu, a trained staff nurse at the hospital, told IPS: “Razia had clogged ducts because her milk wasn’t draining completely, but this could be rectified by steady massaging.”

Peyara Begum, 29, a mother from the city’s Gabtoli area with similar problems, says, “The nurses here attend to you the moment you enter and there are smiling faces all around – and that makes all the difference.”

Prof. Soofia Khatoon, head of the paediatric department of the hospital, told IPS, “Mothers tend to switch to substitutes when they face such minor problems as cracked or flat nipple, low  output and overflow – we have been able to reverse this trend just by speaking to the mothers and encouraging them.”

Many of the nurses employed at the hospital trained at the Bangladesh Breastfeeding Foundation (BBF) which has, since 1989, been running intensive programmes to promote exclusive breastfeeding.

“Exclusive breastfeeding along with awareness building on improving the health of undernourished mothers is the best way to address child malnutrition in Bangladesh,” says BBF chairman Dr. S.K. Roy.

“The challenge now is to take the breastfeeding rate to even higher levels and thereby drastically reduce child malnutrition which is a problem in Bangladesh,” Roy told IPS in an interview.

An internationally acclaimed scientist working on child health, Roy said BBF’s main role was to function as a catalyst to build the capacity of the government, NGOs, the private sector and other stakeholders.

A survey carried out by the National Institute of Population Research and Training attributes the raising of exclusive breastfeeding levels to 64 percent by 2011 to “several intensive programmes that focus on maternal and newborn care and child health.”

Bangladesh’s achievement seems especially impressive when compared with the low exclusive breastfeeding average in South Asia for infants under six months, languishing at 39 percent.

“We have a high level of commitment and support from the government, which is why we have been able to form a nationwide  network for our advocacy programmes in a relatively short time,” Roy said.

In 2010, Bangladesh enforced a directive for extending maternal leave to six months from the previous four for working women to allow them to exclusively breastfeed their newborn.

“This is a sign of the seriousness with which the government is taking the issue as a key to achieving the United Nations millennium development goal that calls for reducing child mortality rates,” Khurshid Jahan, a senior BBF member, told IPS.

“Many don’t realise that exclusive breastfeeding can address  stunting and low weight problems,” Jahan said. “If every mother practices breastfeeding we would have a healthier and more productive  population,” she added.

Workers like Jahan credit the Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative (BFHI) – a global programme sponsored by the World Health Organisation and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) – that assists hospitals in giving mothers confidence and skills to initiate and continue breastfeeding.

About 1,200 government hospitals and health facilities now have centres under the BFHI, while another 500 clinics run by NGOs have similar facilities where mothers are nudged towards exclusive breastfeeding.

In rural areas, mother support groups (MSGs) are at work counselling new mothers and weaning them away from old wives’ myths and traditions that are not friendly to breastfeeding.

When new mothers get back home from the hospital after delivery they are often surrounded by women who insist on feeding the babies prelacteals such as honey or mustard oil, ignoring the naturally protective value of colostrum.

Prof. M. A. K. Azad Chowdhury, head of neonatology department at the Dhaka Shishu (Children’s) Hospital, told IPS, “MSGs work to bring back confidence in mothers who fail to breastfeed their babies. People tend to look for alternative sources of milk in such a situation.”

Infants exclusively breastfed are likely to be exposed less to contaminated foods and this helps reduce the incidence and severity of infectious diseases, Chowdhury said.

After six months, infants should receive nutritionally adequate and safe complementary foods while continuing to be breastfed for up to two years of age or beyond.

UNICEF representative in Bangladesh, Pascal Villeneuve, told IPS, “While we reflect on the successes, we must also note that many babies under six months old in Bangladesh are still not exclusively breastfed.”

Villeneuve said there is work to be done to increase awareness regarding the benefits of exclusive breastfeeding and provide  support to nursing mothers at home, community or workplace.

Cíntia Rose Regis, 23, not only breastfeeds her 16-month-old daughter Zelda but has also been donating 600 ml a week of breast milk to a mothers’ milk bank in Brazil over the last year.

It was her paediatrician who suggested she donate her milk. “As long as my daughter is nursing and stimulating my milk flow, I will carry on donating,” she said.

“I have never personally seen the premature babies who receive my milk, but just knowing that I may have saved some of them is my reward,” she told IPS. “It’s a question of awareness. If I have extra milk that I would throw away, why not donate it?”

And she added that if she has another baby, she will continue to donate part of her milk.

Breast milk is vital for a premature newborn weighing barely 500 grams.
Credit: Manipadma Jena/IPS

Any woman who produces more milk than her baby needs can donate the excess to Brazil’s national network of breast milk banks.

Brazil is becoming an international reference on the matter, and exports low cost technology to set up breast milk banks to 23 countries, as an effective tool to combat infant mortality.

There are 210 mothers’ milk banks distributed throughout Brazil, in every state. And the initiative has led to the creation of 28, in Spain, Portugal and several countries in Latin America and Africa.

So far in 2012, 97,000 litres of breast milk have been collected from 86,000 donors in Brazil and have been used to feed 108,000 babies.

Last year, 165,000 litres were donated by 166,000 mothers, helping nearly 170,000 babies.

The only requirements under Brazilian law are that donors are healthy and are not taking any medication.

The guidelines include simple recommendations for personal hygiene: clean, dry hands and forearms; a quiet, clean place away from animals; a sterilised container; and storage of the milk in a freezer.

Breast milk donated to a bank goes through a selection, classification and pasteurisation process and is then distributed as “quality certified” to babies hospitalised in neonatal units.

This country of 192 million people “has built the largest and most complex network of breast milk banks in the world,” expert João Aprígio Guerra de Almeida told IPS.

“We don’t just carry out collection and distribution. We have breastfeeding support centres, quality control methods, nutritional indicators, monitoring and advisers,” said Almeida, the coordinator of the Brazilian and Ibero-American Network of Human Milk Banks.

The Brazilian government has supported this effort for nearly 30 years, through research at the state Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz).

In 1985 Fiocruz established the first Latin American centre for breast milk research with the goal of understanding the biological, physical, chemical and immunological characteristics of mother’s milk.

“We saw that this work could become a major health strategy to promote conditions that would lead to the reduction of the absurdly high infant mortality rates we had in Brazil,” said Almeida, a Fiocruz researcher. “The statistics were alarming, much higher than the world average.”

Since the 1990s, the country has achieved a 73 percent reduction in infant mortality, and this year it met one of the Millennium Development Goals, agreed by the countries of the United Nations in 2000: a two-thirds reduction in the mortality rate of children under five, between 1990 and 2015.

“Because of our work, the World Health Organisation has recognised Brazil’s impressive gains in reducing infant mortality,” Almeida said.

Before the research effort, “we were completely dependent on the northern hemisphere. To process the milk we had to import equipment from Europe and the United States, which cost some 35,000 dollars at that time,” he said.

International cooperation began in 2007, and now countries like Argentina, Bolivia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Venezuela and Uruguay have the infrastructure to collect and distribute donations of breast milk.

“We support the establishment of these banks and provide advice and train professionals,” said Almeida.

When the initiative was extended to the Ibero-American region, Portugal and Spain joined the network and benefited from an unusual South-North technology transfer.

The creation of milk banks “spread internationally, and in 2007 the leaders of the Ibero-American countries decided to adopt the strategy as an inter-governmental action,” Almeida said.

At the summit held that year in Santiago, the Ibero-American mothers’ milk bank programme was established.

The first Spanish bank was set up in Madrid, and in Portugal the Dr. Alfredo da Costa maternity hospital in Lisbon was similarly equipped in 2008.

Cape Verde became the first African country to join the network, with a milk bank that began to operate in August last year. Fiocruz delegations visited Mozambique and Angola in 2010 and 2011, respectively, and projects are under way there.

Much depends on the willingness to donate. Brazil is promoting May 19 as World Human Milk Donation Day.

“On that day in 2005, the first agreement to create an international network of milk banks was signed by 13 countries and international organisations,” said Almeida.

In Rio de Janeiro, the Fernandes Figueira National Institute for Women, Children and Adolescent Health (IFF) is the Fiocruz unit specialising in neonatal care and milk reception.

Rosane Xavier, a 35-year-old nurse who works in the IFF prenatal laboratory, encourages mothers to breastfeed and, if possible, to donate milk.

Xavier nurses her first son, aged two years and two months, and she is a donor. “When milk is plentiful, I invite mothers to donate. One must be aware of the importance of breast milk for children, and especially for premature babies,” she told IPS.

She says donating breast milk, an intensely personal act, benefits both parties. The advantage to the nursing mother is the removal of excess milk, which can cause problems if it accumulates. And the baby receiving the milk is likely to have fewer illnesses and improved growth.

“A baby that is not breast fed does not develop as well as one that is,” said Xavier. “Breastfeeding brings about better mental development, language development, dentition and immunity.”