PARIS — Breastfeeding more babies for longer could save the global economy $300bn in a single year, simply by yielding smarter and higher-earning offspring, researchers said on Friday.It would also prevent more than 800,000 child deaths, and about 20,000 breast cancer deaths every year."Breastfeeding saves lives and money in all countries, rich and poor alike," said Cesar Victora from the Federal University of Pelotas in Brazil, one of the authors of a research series published by The Lancet medical journal."There is a widespread misconception that the benefits of breastfeeding only relate to poor countries. Nothing could be further from the truth," he said in a statement.The findings were based on analysis of 28 scientific reviews and meta-analyses that looked at the proven health and economic benefits of breastfeeding.The authors said this was the largest and most detailed analysis of its kind ever done.It concluded that breastfeeding led to a "dramatic" improvement in life expect...
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