1511cf66_all_To_Action_on_Breastfeeding__Topic
[ID] 212 [Interest Areas] Concerned Citizen [Comment] Paid maternity leave MUST be longer in this country if women are to succeed at breastfeeding. So many women begin breastfeeding their infants but switch to formula when they go back to work, which is often when their baby is only 2 or 3 months old. Formula is expensive and hard to prepare, and a child who is not nursing must be given formula until s/he is one year old, significantly raising childrearing costs for families who already may be struggling if they are the type of family who cannot afford for the mother to stay home. Many women are successful with pumping, but it requires an enormous commitment of time and energy, especially until the baby reaches six months of age and can begin on solid foods. I know many mothers who have stopped nursing their babies at 3 or 4 months because they cannot handle the demands of pumping at work multiple times a day every day. Encouraging employers to have lactation rooms would certainly help, but the most positive (and drastic) step would be to increase paid maternity leave to six months or even a year so that women can be WITH their babies when their babies need them most. A woman's body is made to nurse a child, not to be hooked up to a breastpump, and more milk is actually produced when a baby nurses than when a woman pumps in the absence of her baby. Though I realize that there would protests from employers and many special interest groups if mandated paid maternity leave were lengthened, it is a vital step that this country must take to keep pace with maternity trends in other parts of the developed world. [Topic] 
Paid Maternity Leave
Call To Action on Breastfeeding
Topic