Breastfeeding Practices

Positive messages about breastfeeding should be evident in the midwife’s practice room (Ewles and Simnett, 2003). Literature and posters that promote breastfeeding can be prominently displayed. All magazines and literature in the waiting room can be examined to ensure that there are no unwanted advertisements or promotions of formula.

Lactation consultants are a vital part of the healthcare system. Together with the rest of the healthcare team they make sure that mother and baby's care as a breastfeeding pair is complete. The International Board Certified Lactation Consultant represents the "gold standard" in lactation consultant credentialing. Lactation consultants who carry the credentials IBCLC behind their names are specially trained and qualified to assist with every aspect of breastfeeding. I chose the topic of lactation consulting because I feel strongly about being a breastfeeding advocate. I believe that those in the healthcare field, especially the people involved in woman’s health and pediatrics should be knowledgeable

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

Breast-feeding was introduced in the 1800s as an alternative to avoid deadly illnesses that were travelling from Spain, Middle East and Asia. In the 1860s scientists began supplementing animals’ milk as formula; especially for mothers who were not able to breast-feed. By the twentieth century, the United States “experienced a sharp decline in breast-feeding rates for infants and toddlers” (Lerner, 2006, p. 362). The reason for decreasing rates in breast-feeding were due to breast-feeding was seen as public indecency, mothers were headed back to work, and mothers were not encourage to breast-feed their child because some people saw it embarrassing. Due to not enforcing laws that were established for breastfeeding mothers; mothers are not comfortable to breast-feed in public from indecency exposure law, allowed flexibility to feed infant during work hours and also protecting a mother’s well-being to breast-feeding in public without embarrassment.

My statement for breastfeeding mothers in the workplace is “Supporting breastfeeding mothers in the workplace will increase better health outcome for infants and mothers”. By embracing mothers’ choice to continue breastfeeding after returning to work can further improve the quality of mothers and baby’s optimal health. Breast milk is the only nutrition some babies need for the first six months of their lives. The benefits of breastfeeding are significant enough to want to educate and advocate for mothers to participate. According to Kozhimannil et al., (2016) it has been proven that babies who are breastfed are less likely to develop certain short-term or chronic illnesses, such as respiratory, gastrointestinal tract infections or death

The National Conference of State Legislatures (2015) recommends all women to breastfeed in order to improve infant health and to prevent potential adverse health outcomes. This paper proposes a breastfeeding education policy to increase the rate of breastfeeding among African American women that will lead to improved overall health for these women and their infants. This will consequently ease the health

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

Rationale: For first time mother breastfeeding can become a frustrating duty when they do not have the necessary resources available for them to use. The mother may be able to properly breastfeed her infant while at the hospital with the lactational consultant and nursing staff at her bedside helping her. Yet when she goes home with the newborn, she may be discouraged to breastfeed the infant because difficulties may arise . As a result, it is necessary for the mother to have at her disposition resources that she can utilize if need it. La Leche League is an excellent resource that supports mothers who are breastfeeding. Also, lactational consultants are great at providing help for mothers who are breastfeeding. Mothers can join support groups where they can openly talk about everything concerning breastfeeding their infants (Lowdermilk, Perry, Cashion, and Alden, 2012).

“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.

Department of Health and Human Services. The Surgeon General’s Call to Action to Support Breastfeeding. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the Surgeon General; 2011. Contains health, psychological, economic, and environmental effects of breastfeeding for both mother and child. The book also contains a lot of carts to show changes in numerous scientific experiments that have taken place.

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

It is not uncommon for parents, especially mothers, to feel disconnected from their parental role while their infant is in the NICU because they are not very involved with their infant’s care (Boucher et al., 2011). The parents’ lack of interaction can be very detrimental to their emotional status. Mothers often associate breastfeeding with the idea of “good mothering,” and a way of nurturing the infant. Lack of breastfeeding can occur for numerous reasons, one being lack of knowledge. Mom’s may lack knowledge about breastfeeding and the nutritional benefits due to missing classes because of pregnancy complication and pre-term delivery. During a NICU study it was found that when incorporating a lactation consultant as a member of the NICU healthcare team, infants are more likely to benefit from breastfeeding, and mothers are more likely to maintain a milk supply (Dweck et al., 2008). This information may be very crucial for future NICU policies. These are just a few of the many barriers in the

It has been challenging to rate the strength of breastfeeding research due to the inconsistency of definitions related to breastfeeding (such as the exclusivity, frequency, intensity and duration) and inability to conduct randomized controlled trials, which would be deemed unethical. Despite the inability to obtain high-quality evidence due to practical limitations, meta-analyses continue to indicate that breastfeeding is associated with an increase of health benefits to both mothers and infants.

There are several benefits of feeding breast milk; they are lower risk of infectious disease, ear infection, allergic rhinitis, asthma, sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), childhood obesity, upper respiratory tract infection and diarrhea episode (Neifer & Bunik, 2013; Pineda, 2011). The total costs of the burden of not breastfeeding is around 13 billion dollars in the United States (Bonia, Twells, Halyard, Ludlow, Newhook & Murphy, 2013). There exist racial and ethnic disparity in breastfeeding in the United States. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2013) African American population breastfeeding rate is 58.9% compared to Caucasian American is 75.2%. There are several barriers to initiation and continuation of breastfeeding behavior from birth till six months; they are: soreness of nipple, mother’s own views on breastfeeding, lacks family and social support, delivery type, number of pregnancies, use of any illicit drugs, premature newborn, age of a mother, illnesses of a mother and infant, real and perceived milk insufficiency, convenience of Women Infant children (WIC) formula, delayed intervention to breastfeeding problems, lacks breastfeeding information, lacks follow up after discharge, early introduction of solid food, perception of normal infant behavior, lacks knowledge about pumping breast milk, lacks support from health care provider, mothers education level and maternal occupation (Cabieses, Waiblinger, Santorelli & McEachan, 2014;

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