Infant mortality.   Infant morbidity. Not quite the topics that we want to consider early in the morning. But, we must- because if we keep doing nothing, the lot of these tiny tots have no chance of improvement.

The good thing is that we don’t need to spend billions on the problem. We just need moms to properly provide nutrition to their kids. Thankfully, the Supreme Being provided just the prescription (except in a few, rare cases, like the mom having breast cancer).

Because nursing one’s baby is as natural and as healthy as it can get for an infant. The lactation process provides the tot with vital nutrition, antibodies, temperature control, heartbeat synchrony, and some psychic benefits to boot. No need to buy infant formula, no need to seek out clean water to make that formula- everything that is needed is already present.

Oh, that doesn’t mean that nascent moms won’t need coaching, won’t need help to find the proper way to get their kids to latch on. And, they may need a pretty cheap antiseptic (chlorhexidine) to disinfect the umbilical cord stump after birth.

Believe it or not, some 3 million tots are dead after less than 28 days, with an additional 2.5 million or so dying during the final trimester of pregnancy or during the birth process. That means the death of about ½ (ok, 44%) of all children under the age of 5 all occur during this short period of time.

Right now, there are plenty of lactation specialists. (Check our ReadySetSleepNurse.com for one such group.) And, WHO (the World Health Organization), the UN (United Nations), and the Gates Foundation are devoting resources to solve this growing problem. These groups hope to cut newborn deaths to 10 per 1000 live births. (This is not just a developing world problem- that rate is 21 in the US alone!)

The goal is to train a slew of birthing assistants that can help moms prevail with nursing. With such a simple solution, one can hope even the UN can finally deliver on a promise.

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