A new study out in the journal Pediatrics reports that:
"If 90% of US families could comply with medical recommendations to breastfeed exclusively for 6 months, the United States would save $13 billion per year and prevent an excess 911 deaths, nearly all of which would be in infants ($10.5 billion and 741 deaths at 80% compliance)."
To this end, they explain that there are many things that we are doing wrong that prevent women from breastfeeding this length of time. In fact, the breastfeeding goals of most women would significantly increase the low numbers that we currently have in the US. So what could we do differently? Here are my recommendations:
- Breastfeeding should begin immediately after birth, at least within 30 minutes. Skin to skin contact will facilitate this, even after a c-section delivery.
- Choose your hospital or place of birth wisely, consider finding a baby friendly certified place.
- Pick a pediatrician who not only tolerates breastfeeding but supports it.
- Have professional breastfeeding help in place before your have your baby.
- Be leery of advice from hospital personnel that are not your lactation consultant or practitioner. Many well meaning nurses are not trained to aid in breastfeeding, despite working in a maternity care unit. If something sounds wrong or off, just double check with your lactation professionals.
- Just say no to hospital formula freebies.
- Tell your family and friends supportive comments welcome, all others should be kept to themselves.
Your choice of hospital is important to achieving your breastfeeding goals. This is probably not a surprising statement. What may surprise is how much that influence really is on your ability to get breastfeeding off on the right foot. Researchers recently looked at over 1,500 mothers who gave birth in 2005. They were asked about their original breastfeeding goals and about seven hospital policies that are a part of the ten steps to becoming a "Baby-Friendly" hospital.
70% of the first time mothers said that their goal was to breastfeed exclusively. At the end of the first week, only 50% were breastfeeding exclusively. What the study found was that if the hospitals had practiced six or seven of the steps in question, these first time moms where six times more likely to still be breastfeeding exclusively, which was their intention.
Some of the steps included:
- Initiate breastfeeding within the first hour after birth
- Practice rooming in
- Encourage unrestricted breastfeeding
- No supplementation for newborns unless medically necessary
- No pacifiers or artificial nipples for breastfeeding babies
- Train all staff in breastfeeding skills to help mothers as they implement this policy
I think that there are so many ways that the hospital and the staff can influence breastfeeding mothers. The last point is really important because I'm hearing from so many mothers that one of the things that really gets to them is the fact that every nurse or nurses aid who walks in has a different set of instructions for how to breastfeed, which leads to confusion. Was that ever an issue for you?
Related articles:
- Preparing to Breastfeed
- Is your pediatrician breastfeeding friendly?
- When to Call a Lactation Consultant
- How did your hospital help you breastfeed?
- How to Choose a Hospital for Your Baby's Birth
- 8 Tips to the Grandma of the Breastfeeding Baby
- Being a Baby Friendly Hospital
- Breastfeeding Your Baby
Sources:
Bartick, M. Arnold Reinhold, A. The Burden of Suboptimal Breastfeeding in the United States: A Pediatric Cost Analysis. Pediatrics published online April 5, 2010 (10.1542/peds.2009-1616)
Declercq, Eugene, Labbok, Miriam, Sakala, Carol, O'Hara, MaryAnn
Hospital Practices and Women's Likelihood of Fulfilling Their Intention to Exclusively Breastfeed
Am J Public Health 2009 0: AJPH.2008.135236