1511cf66_all_To_Action_on_Breastfeeding__Topic
[ID] 171 [Interest Areas] Concerned Citizen [Comment] As a nursing mother, I am pleased to have experienced the positive effects of changes in medical care and in federal and state laws to promote breastfeeding in the U.S. If the goal is to increase breastfeeding rates even further among American mothers, we must first target paid AND unpaid maternity leave policies. Going back to work has got to be one of the most significant obstacles to long-term breastfeeding. Many women find ways to manage pumping at work, but many others find it onerous or impossible for any number of reasons. The difficulties women face in balancing career prospects with the care of their children have implications for families in many areas other than breastfeeding, as well. Women need more choices in order to establish a satisfying work-family balance. Paid maternity leave certainly needs to be extended beyond six weeks. Six weeks is just barely enough time to overcome many nursing problems, let alone introduce a breastpump into the routine, let alone establish a strong, healthy bond with your new child. In addition, mandatory paid paternity leave would help encourage breastfeeding as well. In the first couple of weeks, nursing alone can be more than a full-time job, and it will work best if the father is present to reduce stress by helping with other aspects of care and household tasks. Perhaps this could be accomplished through some sort of joint mandatory paid leave policy, where working parents are guaranteed the right to a certain number of weeks but can divide it in whatever way works best for them. Since mandatory paid leave places a heavy burden on employers, we should also extend unpaid leave opportunities for both mothers and fathers. This will allow mothers in particular more flexibility to be available for their children and develop workable nursing routines, without sacrificing their job and income in the future when they are able to return to the workforce. In my view, however, one of the most important ways the workforce should change to accommodate nursing mothers and mothers in general is to offer more part-time work opportunities in every field. The standard 40+ hour work weeks is the expectation that forces parents to choose between their careers and their families, and that choice is not one that people in this country should have to make on such a regular basis. This priority should be followed closely in importance by the establishment of on-site child care facilities in most work environments, which would allow mothers to take nursing breaks without a breast pump. On a final note, I believe that expending resources to pressure women to breastfeed cannot begin to substitute for the changes in labor practices I've discussed here. In fact, these efforts can even be counterproductive, as the positive response to Hanna Rosin's Atlantic article has shown. [Topic] 
Paid Maternity Leave
Call To Action on Breastfeeding
Topic