Breastfeeding Benefits

The immediate and long-term benefits of breastfeeding have been demonstrated. Mothers are encouraged to begin breastfeeding immediately after delivery, however mothers choosing to breastfeed find numerous challenges once returning to work. There are not appropriate accommodations to support nursing mothers in the workplace. Although there are law in place to support accommodations in the workplace these laws are not enforced and therefore it is virtually impossible for mothers to continue to breastfeed as a result of the significant barriers they face to effectively find suitable accommodations in their workplace. There needs to be a standard for enforcing these policies if the goal is to move toward encouraging all mothers to breastfeed throughout the first 6 months of life.

The immediate and long-term benefits of breastfeeding have been demonstrated. Mothers are encouraged to begin breastfeeding immediately after delivery, however mothers choosing to breastfeed find numerous challenges once returning to work. There are not appropriate accommodations to support nursing mothers in the workplace. Although there are laws in place to support accommodations in the workplace these laws are not enforced and therefore it is virtually impossible for mothers to continue to breastfeed as a result of the significant barriers they face to effectively find suitable accommodations in the workplace. There needs to be a standard for enforcing these policies if the goal is to move toward encouraging all mothers to breastfeed throughout the first six months of life.

DiGirolamo, A., Grummer-Strawn, L., & Fein, S. (2008). Effect of Maternity-Care Practices on Breastfeeding. Pediatrics , S43-S49.

breastfeed agree that they feel a closer bond with their children after breastfeeding and are able to better understand their child’s wants (Newman and Pitman 14). In The Surgeon General’s Call to Action to Support Breastfeeding the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services reports that breastfeeding can reduce risk of postpartum depression, a condition that affects 13 percent of mothers, causing them to be upset and even angry at their child for crying, as well as other serious symptoms that can affect the mother’s mental state (3). They also found that a

Breastfeeding is one of the best methods for providing infants with a healthy start to life. Breast milk helps the body fight off various bacteria and viruses that one’s child might be at risk for catching. Breastfed babies are thirty-six percent less likely to die from sudden infant death syndrome and are fifty-five percent likely to become obese later in life, compared to babies who are not breastfeed. (Workplace and Public Accommodations for Nursing Mothers, 2016) Not only is the child benefiting from breastfeeding, the mother is as well. Women who breastfeed are more likely to revert to their

A lot of mothers are not being told how wonderful breastfeeding is for their health. Whether out of inexperience or due to the impact of the artificial baby milk industry, many health care providers fail to let mothers know of the facts. As other new mothers find out about these facts, more mothers will not merely choose to breastfeed for a short period of time to provide early disease control for their baby, but will continue to breastfeed, providing the best results both for their child and for

Women in the work force have several things to contend with, like jobs not having a place for mom to pump, having adequate time for mom to spend pumping, and the stresses of being in the work force can cause lack of production alone. It took me until my third child to be able to exclusively breastfeed and having been a part of the work force for the first two I can attest the difficulties that come along with it. With my oldest was breastfed and I pumped at work. I had a place to pump, but the only times I was allowed to pump on my assigned breaks, which left little time for lunch or anything else. The increasing stress of the job reduced my milk, to which my doctor suggested supplements to help. After only four short months I completely lost the ability to breastfeed. In Brody’s article she mentions the emotional distress that mothers encounter when they are unsuccessful in breastfeeding their infants. I think this partly is due to the push by the campaigners to breastfeed only, or at least the first six months. Women after having babies are in recovery. As my OBGYN explained to me, women are reclaiming their bodies, their hormones are all out of whack and trying to return to some form of “normal”. This can be part of the increasing numbers of women with post-partum

Two authors independently evaluated each article for relevant using a predefined set of criteria. Inclusion and exclusion criteria were specified and were appropriate for the review. The researchers were concerned with the effect education and support for the mothers had on the exclusive breastfeeding rates of healthy newborns. Inclusion criteria included randomized controlled trials (RCT) or quasi-experimental trails. The types of articles included are those that discussed interventions through education or support given to the mother prenatal/postnatal, or a combination. All delivery types were included. For

“Breast feeding rates in developed countries such as the UK, Australia and the US are typically lower than World Health Organisation goals” Parkinson (2010) 3. From a study carried out by Queensland university stressed the importance of not only the delivery of literature on how effective breastfeeding is for your babies health but that what was also needed to increase the number of breast feeders was to give personal support and explains social and environmental benefits also. When they looked at the UK in particular, Parkinson (2010) 3 stated “women already understood that breastfeeding was good for their baby, and what they needed were the tools to help them to breastfeed longer. From this it is clear that although effective and sufficient information around the benefits of the child is being addressed, there is no sufficient information or skills being given direct to the parents in order for them to carry this out for any length of time. Another piece of research was carried out in 2010 on ways to change the paradigm of breastfeeding, from encouraging promotion of breast feeding within the employment setting.

There has been a trend developing that moves women away from breastfeeding their children despite the benefits of immunity and nutrients for optimal growth for infants. According to the article, “Breastfeeding and Culture,” the three main forces that work together for this movement is the change in economies that now focus more on money and having the wife be a husband's social partner, a belief that science will provide better for a child then a mother's own body, and commercialism that makes women feel as if breastfeeding is primitive, shameful, or unhealthy. These factors play a huge role in many different cultures for women when deciding if they should breastfeed their child or not. Particularly from Western influence and the effect of media, educated upper class women of many

Breastfeeding has sometimes been viewed as a disturbing public exposure by a lot of people. Most of them chose to ignore the benefits of breastfeeding your child. The article of Lisa Flam is an example of what people think about breastfeeding. It discusses a picture of a young African woman nurturing her child in front of everyone during a graduation ceremony. Despite the fact that people think is wrong to breastfeed your child in public, it is legal in 49 states in the United States. Another perspective of looking at this article is the empowerment of encouraging African women to breastfeed their children because they are the groups that breastfeed their children the least in the United States.

Twenty one to one interviews were conducted with women who have had babies within one year. Half are currently breastfeeding and half are not breastfeeding at all but were at the time of birth. Ages range from 20 to 34. I will first discuss the women who are not breastfeeding. There were several motives expressed as reasons why breastfeeding was not successful, but the overwhelming underlying reason was lack of proper education. Motives listed in order of most frequent were pain associated with breastfeeding (3), lack adequate milk supply (3), infection from oversupply (1), lack of pumping time/space at work (2), wanted baby to sleep longer (1), and family members not being supportive (2). Concurrently, in literature, lack of adequate milk supply and returning to work were the two main reasons women stopped breastfeeding (Arlotti, Cottrell, Lee, & Curtin, 1998). The women that reported pain as the reason for not continuing to breastfeed never sought out a lactation consultation, and felt like their primary care provider was not well versed in lactation in general. The women who stopped breastfeeding due to inadequate milk supply all became frustrated and stopped at a common infant growth spurt phase suggesting that education on growth spurts and how the supply and demand system work may have been beneficial. The women who stopped breastfeeding due to pumping concerns at work were not educated on the state laws regarding breastfeeding and that the law mandates a reasonable

According to The Equal Opportunity Act and the US Department of Labor, a mother should be able to breastfeed her child in public and in her place of work. Even when it is a protected right, public perception varies on the delicate issue of whether or not a nursing mother should meet the necessities of her child in a public place. If babies have the right to eat and people do not complain or judge when a baby is being bottle-fed in public, then mothers who choose to breast feed should have the same right. Many people are not well informed of the all the benefits that breastfeeding offers the child, mother, and, even the public.

In completing post-class questionnaires, participants scored significantly higher for breastfeeding knowledge, rated breastfeeding as significantly more important, and cited significantly higher confidence levels in breastfeeding than in pre-class questionnaires. In the 6-week postpartum interview, 70 of the original 153 mothers were interviewed. 91% were

Breastfeeding is an experience that is foreign for most people until they actually experience it. I had limited knowledge of breastfeeding until I interviewed my friend who currently has two children. Before she had her first child, she read a lot of books and watched a lot of videos, but they still didn’t quite capture the experience. She is a nurse and with her healthcare background, she felt confident about the importance of breastfeeding her children, especially in the first 6 -12 months. Before her baby, she was worried about the physical process and what it would feel like. After birth, she was more worried about her baby being able to breastfeed. For the first few weeks, her baby was having a hard time breastfeeding and she had to occasionally