Breastfeeding Value Calculator

Newborns (0 to 3 months) feed roughly 10 times per day for about 30 minutes a feed, including 3 night feeds. That is 5 hours a day on average. By 3 to 6 months it drops to about 7 feeds at 22 minutes each (around 2.5 hours daily) with 2 night wakes. From 6 to 12 months, expect 5 feeds at 15 minutes (1.25 hours daily) and a single night feed. From 12 months to 24, it slows to 3 feeds of 12 minutes (just over half an hour a day), often only morning and bedtime.

If you breastfeed exclusively for the first 12 months, the calculator totals roughly 1,000 hours of direct feeding time, plus night wakes. That is the equivalent of a 25-week full-time job that only one parent can do. The 3am cluster-feed in week 2, when the baby has fed for 40 minutes, fallen asleep on you and woken the moment you put them in the cot, is included in that figure. Knowing the number does not make it less knackering, but it does name the work.

UK formula costs around £12.50 a week for typical brands like SMA or Aptamil; in the US it averages $30 a week and in Australia A$30. Plus equipment (bottles, sterilisers, prep machines) which is a £350 one-off in the UK and up to £500 in Australia. The calculator combines those numbers across the months you breastfeed, so a UK mother who breastfeeds exclusively for 12 months saves roughly £650 in formula plus £350 in equipment, before counting the time value at all.

If you mix-feed (combination), the savings scale linearly with the breast-feed share. A 50/50 mix saves about half the formula cost. The calculator has a slider for percentage formula so you can model your real pattern, including the case most working mothers know well: exclusive in the first 6 months, then dropping to maybe 20 percent breast as nursery and pumping take over from 9 months onwards.

Time spent breastfeeding is unpaid work nobody puts a number on. The calculator multiplies your feeding hours by the average hourly female wage in your country (£14.50 UK, $22.50 US, A$30 AU). For a 12-month UK breastfeeding journey at roughly 1,000 hours, that is around £14,500 of time value. Add the formula and equipment savings and the total worth lands somewhere between £15,000 and £20,000 depending on country and pattern.

This is not the same as saying you should be paid for it; it is saying that the work has a measurable economic value and that any policy debate that ignores it (statutory maternity pay at £187.18 a week in 2025/26, for example) is leaving most of the picture out. Edge case: returning to work and pumping. Pumping is slower than direct feeding (factor in 20 percent more time per session) and the calculator handles this with the Express setting. The [stay at home mum calculator](/stay-at-home-mum-calculator) covers the broader picture if you stayed home for the breastfeeding period.