Not breastfeeding has significant health and economic impacts. The Cost of Not Breastfeeding Tool is an evidence-based modeling tool that uses open-access data to estimate the health and economic costs of not protecting, promoting, and supporting breastfeeding.

With support from the Government of Ireland, Alive & Thrive is working to tackle malnutrition and reach global nutrition targets in the Mekong Sub-Region with a priority on the furthest behind in each context.

This brief by Nutrition International and Alive & Thrive provides key findings from the updated and expanded Cost of Not Breastfeeding tool, including summaries of the costs by region and country case studies for China,

A breastfeeding promotion intervention in private facilities in Lagos, which included training for healthcare providers, increased the percentage of exclusively breastfed infants but had no impact on early initiation of breastfeeding.  

Breastfeeding and mothers’ milk is presently not counted in food systems or the economy but should be. The Mothers’ Milk Tool will help.

The science of maternal nutrition and its application programmatically continues to evolve as societies change and demographics shift. Yet, across the globe, in many diverse settings, questions remain about maternal weight gain and diet. How much weight should a woman gain during pregnancy?