BOSTON -- Most parents understand that breastfeeding is beneficial to the mother and baby.

But as NewsCenter 5's Heather Unruh reported Monday, there's new evidence it saves lives and money.

Levi Cohen, who is 16 months old, has been breastfed since birth.

"I've heard great benefits of breastfeeding, including how it can improve their health and their bond with their parents," said Autumn Cohen, Levi's mother.

Matteo, 4, was also breastfed until he was 2.

"I wanted to make sure my kids were getting the right nutrients," Geno Cortes, of Cambridge, Mass.

Seventy-five percent of new moms give breastfeeding a try, according to experts. But only 12 percent stick to the federal recommendations that moms breastfeed exclusively for the first six months of life. That lack of breastfeeding costs lives and money, according to a new report in the journal Pediatrics.

"Our failure to comply with medical recommendations around breast-feeding is costing $13 billion a year, and 911 excess deaths," said Dr. Melissa Bartick, a researcher with Harvard Medical School.

Bartick is a key researcher behind the report, as well as an internist at Cambridge Health Alliance. She said most of the $13 billion is due to premature death.

"Most of the deaths were from sudden infant death syndrome," she said.

The researchers also calculated the costs of treating common illnesses, like ear infections, which are more common in bottle-fed babies, and time missed from work because parents were sick.

"No one should feel guilty about this," Bartick said.

And that's critical. Bartick said moms should not take the blame here. Instead, she is calling for more support so new parents know that when breastfeeding's possible, the health benefits are huge.

"Breastfeeding saves lives," she said. "We could achieve much of this $13 billion savings even if we had only 80 to 90 percent of moms exclusively breastfeeding four months and doing any breast-feeding for six months."