Surgeon General Calls For More Support for Breastfeeding

Study after study after study reveals the immense health benefits of breastfeeding for both babies and their moms, yet less than a quarter of babies are breastfed until they are six months old -- the minimum amount recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics.

In an effort to encourage more women to breastfeed their new infants longer, on January 20, 2011, Surgeon General Regina M. Benjamin issued a “Call to Action to Support Breastfeeding,” outlining steps that can be taken to remove some of the obstacles faced by women who want to breastfeed their babies.

While 75 percent of U.S. babies start out eating nothing but breast milk, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says only 13 percent are exclusively breastfed at the end of six months.  The rates are particularly low among African-American infants.

The reason for this could be due to the many barriers that exist for women who want to both start and continue to nurse their infants.

There are social and emotional barriers when women are uneducated about the health benefits associated with breastfeeding, a lack of support at home, the lack of a supportive friend or family member with experience nursing her own children.

Some women may not get enough information from health care clinicians while they’re in the hospital; they’re not shown any of the tips or tricks involved with getting an infant to latch on.

When women have to go back to work, oftentimes there isn’t a private, comfortable space for them to pump breast milk and unless they want to resort to holing up in a stall in the ladies’ room for a half hour, they may figure they have to throw in the towel.

There’s also sometimes an inability to connect with other breastfeeding mothers in their communities -- something that could help many women through the emotional ups and downs of this deceptively tricky process.

Benjamin said these women shouldn’t have to go it alone.

“Whether you’re a clinician, a family member, a friend, or an employer, you can play an important part in helping mothers who want to breastfeed,” she said.

Benjamin notes the decision to nurse a new baby is a personal one and “no mother should be made to feel guilty if she cannot or chooses not to breastfeed.”

But for those who do, Benjamin’s “Call to Action” identifies ways families, communities, employers and health care professionals can improve breastfeeding rates and increase support for breastfeeding:

• Communities should expand and improve programs that provide mother-to-mother support and peer counseling.
• Health care systems should ensure that maternity care practices provide education and counseling on breastfeeding.  Hospitals should become more “baby-friendly,” by taking steps like those recommended by the UNICEF/WHO’s Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative.
• Clinicians should ensure that they are trained to properly care for breastfeeding mothers and babies.  They should promote breastfeeding to their pregnant patients and make sure that mothers receive the best advice on how to breastfeed.
• Employers should work toward establishing paid maternity leave and high-quality lactation support programs.  Employers should expand the use of programs that allow nursing mothers to have their babies close by so they can feed them during the day.  They should also provide women with break time and private space to express breast milk.
• Families should give mothers the support and encouragement they need to breastfeed.

Family members can help mothers prepare for breastfeeding and support their continued breastfeeding, including after her return to work or school.

According to the “Call to Action,” breastfeeding protects babies from infections and illnesses that include diarrhea, ear infections, and pneumonia. Breastfed babies are also less likely to develop asthma, and those who are breastfed for six months are less likely to become obese.  

Mothers themselves who breastfeed are able to lose baby weight faster and have a decreased risk of breast and ovarian cancers.

Breastfeeding also benefits our overtaxed health care system.

A study published last year in the journal Pediatrics estimated that the nation would save $13 billion per year in health care and other costs if 90 percent of U.S. babies were exclusively breastfed for six months.

Benjamin added that, by providing accommodations for nursing mothers, employers can reduce their company’s health care costs and lower their absenteeism and turnover rates.

“I believe that we as a nation are beginning to see a shift in how we think and talk about breastfeeding,” said Dr. Benjamin.  “With this ‘Call to Action,’ I am urging everyone to help make breastfeeding easier.”