The United States Breastfeeding Committee celebrated World Breastfeeding Week during the first week of this month. Its theme centered on the question of breastfeeding and preparedness for emergency response.
After all, breastfeeding is known to protect infants from diseases, which can be even more critical during disasters when electricity, fuel and clean water aren't readily available.
The benefits to children include reducing ear infections, viral illness, respiratory infections and diseases, as well as reducing the risk of childhood leukemia. There's also growing evidence that breastfeeding reduces child obesity.
Since the closing of Northeastern Hospital's maternity unit in June meant there no longer is a Northeast Philadelphia hospital that provides childbirth deliveries, a more local question could be whether maternity closures are impacting the instruction and support that new mothers need to begin and continue nursing their babies. Are Northeast newborns missing out on the nutrition and protection against disease that breastfeeding affords?
According to Dr. Esther Chung, a physician advocate with the Maternity Care Coalition and an associate professor of pediatrics at Jefferson Medical College, the answers are hard to know without data and hard facts.
"We do know that hospitals are where they get their information. When the baby's delivered, it's recommended that babies have skin-to-skin contact with mother," Chung said. "Babies will naturally latch better. If (skin-to-skin contact occurs) within the first hour, the success is better with respect to how long mothers end up breastfeeding," Chung said.
The success rate is even better for hospitals that employ lactation consultants.
An International Board Certified Lactation Consultant is a health-care professional who specializes in the clinical management of breastfeeding. They help women with such concerns as latching difficulty, painful nursing, milk supply and pumping.
Chung pointed toward a study that shows a twofold increase in women breastfeeding at the time of hospital discharge when lactation consultants were utilized. Among women receiving Medicaid, the increase was 4.13 times greater that they were breastfeeding at the time of discharge.
"The majority of hospitals - all but Temple - have lactation consultants," Chung said.
That fact is troubling to Chung, especially since Temple University Hospital is handling overflow from the defunct Northeastern unit in Port Richmond.
According to Rebecca Harmon, spokeswoman for the Temple University Health System, Temple addresses breastfeeding in prenatal offices, childbirth classes and in the maternal/infant division at Temple University Hospital.
"We have invested considerable time in educational programs for the maternal/infant nursing staff in order to prepare them to work with their patients who are interested in breastfeeding or who may be on the fence in their decision to breast feed," Harmon wrote in an e-mail to the Times.
Harmon also noted the Northeastern Ambulatory Care Center's two full-time community-outreach specialists and upcoming educational programs on women's health, including breastfeeding.
While Dr. Chung commends Temple for educating physicians and nurses, she reiterated the success of lactation consultants and hopes that Temple will join the other hospitals.
"The evidence speaks for itself, especially for serving low-income - it seems like a disservice," Chung said. "Even in the abstract, there is clear evidence that to make a larger impact, Temple should join the other hospitals."
Another big issue impacting breastfeeding rates is the offering of newborn formula diaper bags with the formula's logo upon hospital discharge, according to Chung.
The Institute of Medicine, a non-profit organization chartered in 1970 as a component of the National Academy of Sciences, whose mission is to serve as an adviser to the nation to improve health, questioned the practice as a possible conflict of interest in a recent report. The report called for transparency in regard to associations between the medical world and industry.
Formula manufacturers have supplied hospitals with free formula and newborn starter packs for more than 40 years. They also have sought to create brand loyalty at hospitals by supplying free formula for use in the hospital, as well as support for fellowships and conferences, according to an article in the American Journal of Public Health.
Chung is also concerned about the message these freebies give.
"Bags are being given out as a means of formula marketing but can be misleading (to new parents who might think formula is) what's best for babies," Chung said. "Everybody wants to do the right thing for their children."
Breastfeeding could also save a minimum of $3.6 billion annually, according to a U.S. Department of Agriculture report, if breastfeeding rates are increased from current levels to those recommended by the U.S. Surgeon General. The current level stands at 64 percent of moms nursing while in the hospital and 29 percent nursing at six months. The levels would need to be at the 75 percent and 50 percent marks, respectively, to realize the proposed savings.
The estimated minimum cost savings - reflecting such things as reductions in the need to treat illnesses and also diseases that breastfeeding supposedly prevents - does not take into account a reduced need for families to take time off from work to care for their sick children. All of the benefits, both physical and economic, are incrementally increased with the duration of breastfeeding, according to Chung.
For more information, visit www.momobile.org/breastfeeding
For answers to questions regarding breastfeeding, visit www.llli.org/nb.html
To hear an interview with Dr. Gail Herrine, a member of the Women's Health practice at NACC and an advocate of breastfeeding, visit www.radiospace.com/acp02.htm.
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