Breastfeeding and climate change

“Given how crucial breastfeeding is for child health and development, it is imperative that it is protected and supported during climate-related events…It is crucial to transform the current failing food systems into healthy and sustainable food systems that support breastfeeding and access to affordable healthy foods and beverages preconceptionally and during pregnancy, lactation, and early childhood.”

Women, infants, and children are strongly vulnerable to climate change for several reasons. Climate change events create conditions that make it difficult for infants to breastfeed in both low- and high- income settings.

“Moving forward, it is key that breastfeeding is supported during climate change-related humanitarian emergencies as well as during normal circumstances. This is because breastfeeding improvements can help mitigate climate change as it is a “green” infant feeding practice.”

“Infant and toddler formulas exacerbate environmental damage and should be a matter of increasing global concern. Breastfeeding uses fewer resources, produces minimal or zero waste and is associated with infant and maternal health outcomes which produce healthier populations that use fewer healthcare resources.”

(Joffe, 2019)

Policies, programmes and investments to shift infant and young child diets towards less manufactured milk formula and more breastfeeding are 'Triple Duty Actions' that help improve dietary quality and population health and improve the sustainability of the global food system footprint.

(Dadhich, 2021)

“Recognising barriers to breastfeeding within the food system and breastmilk as a critical first food are important first steps in ensuring that children…receive the food and nutrition needed to grow, survive, and thrive. Stakeholders…are urged to act to ensure women and families have the ability and support to make the best food choices for their children, including breastfeeding.”

(Oot, 2021)

“The intersections of climate change and breastfeeding, especially the role of breastfeeding in climate resiliency, can lead to strengthened responses. A political ecological approach views the socially-driven phenomena of human milk substitute production and climate resiliency as intricately related components in a larger political-ecological system.”

(Zadkovic, 2020)

Food security for infants and young children is not possible without promoting and achieving high rates of breastfeeding. The health benefits of breastfeeding, both during infancy and throughout life, including the preservation of a healthy microbiome, have been extensively studied and will provide some protection against the effects of climate change.

(Binns, 2021)

“Breastfeeding rates will have an influence on the demand for energy services associated with breast-milk substitutes; therefore, this influence needs to be incorporated into energy models…. Positioning access to breastfeeding support as a climate justice issue can mitigate the concern with jeopardising women’s reproductive rights or interfering with their individual choices.”

(Long, 2021)