Breastfeeding Goes Global

August 3, 2011

By Meredith Pond, Writer

When Surgeon General Dr. Regina M. Benjamin released the Call to Action to Support Breastfeeding in January of this year, her goal was to “set forth the important roles and responsibilities of clinicians, employers, communities, researchers, and government leaders, and to urge us all to take on a commitment to enable mothers to meet their personal goals for breastfeeding.”

I felt encouraged, but I thought workplace changes to improve conditions for breastfeeding mothers would take a while to happen. 

Instead, it’s the exact opposite.  There’s a rush in offices around the country to adapt space to accommodate working mothers and their need for some privacy during the months they are breastfeeding.

That’s great news, but the real news is that breastfeeding has gone global.  Women everywhere are making the decision to breastfeed.  This week, the United States joins 120 countries and the World Health Organization (WHO) in recognizing World Breastfeeding Week and the importance of breastfeeding to a child’s health and to the health of a new mother.  According to the Call to Action, “breastfeeding is the best source of infant nutrition and immunologic protection.”

Here in the United States, the Surgeon General recently marked World Breastfeeding Week with a statement saying that American hospitals should “become more ‘baby-friendly’ (about breastfeeding) by taking steps like those recommended by the UNICEF/WHO's Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative."  As it turns out, we can be more encouraging to new mothers about breastfeeding.  We can help them find good information and resources. 

At the Office on Women’s Health (OWH), for example, many resources are posted on the OWH Web site, including a toll-free number for the National Breastfeeding Helpline (1-800-994-9662).  Trained counselors are available to take questions Monday through Friday, from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., eastern time.

To understand how we are doing as a nation in terms of breastfeeding, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently issued statistics in the 2011 Breastfeeding Report Card revealing that three of four mothers (75 percent) in the United States start out breastfeeding.  That’s good, right?  But, “at the end of 6 months, breastfeeding rates drop to 44 percent, and only 15 percent of babies are exclusively breastfed.”  This is a state-by-state report, so you can look up data on your own state’s results. 

CDC isn’t the only agency after improved breastfeeding statistics.  The Department of Health & Human Services’ Healthy People 2020 provides science-based, 10-year national objectives for improving the health of all Americans, including objectives for breastfeeding.  We need to raise those numbers to “82 percent ever breastfed, 61 percent at 6 months, and 34 percent at 1 year.”

This brings us back to workplace accommodations for breastfeeding mothers.  The Affordable Care Act (ACA) amends the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 to make sure employers provide breastfeeding mothers reasonable break times and a place—other than a restroom—that is private and clean. 

Here at IQ Solutions, for the comfort and privacy of our breastfeeding moms, special paper is placed on their interior office window as a temporary privacy shield.  In the near future, something more baby-appropriate and colorful will be designed to cover those window spaces. 

The Affordable Care Act has made significant progress in support of breastfeeding.  New insurance guidelines will ensure that millions of women receive preventive health services without a co-pay or deductible.  These guidelines, developed by the Institute of Medicine at the National Institutes of Health, require insurance companies to cover certain women’s preventive services, including breastfeeding support, supplies, and counseling. 

If you’re a breastfeeding mother, how are you doing?  Check in with other breastfeeding moms who share their stories on the OWH Web site.