Field Stories
Centering women’s voices to drive meaningful change
March 5, 2025
Globally, more than 500,000 child deaths are attributed to not breastfeeding each year. Optimal breastfeeding also has the potential to prevent the deaths of over 90,000 mothers from cancers and type II diabetes each year. The new Cost of Not Breastfeeding Tool, developed by Nutrition International in partnership with Alive & Thrive and Limestone Analytics, is a first-of-its-kind resource, based on open access data. The tool was designed to help policymakers and advocates quantify the health, human capital and economic costs of not breastfeeding, including lost life, lost productivity and increased costs to health systems at country, regional and global levels.