Breastfeeding - the great debate! 

I personally was not breastfed - my mother was a single mom and had to return to work shortly after I was born. She explained to me that there was no place in her office building at the time that could accommodate woman to pump in private and it was frowned upon to do that in the restroom. I love walking into businesses and they have designated rooms for woman who would like to provide for their child(ren) in that way or that it is becoming a little more accepted by society.

This can be a topic women (and some men) are very passionate about - the health of their children are affected by it. This can also be a sore subject for some women who would love to breastfeed their children but physically cannot - one of which is my sister in-law (Michelle). Michelle was able to breastfeed her first son for the first year of his life with no problems but with her second child her milk supply ran out after five months. My other sister in-law (Jessica) was able to produce milk for both of her children for the first year of their life (either through pumping or actually breastfeeding). This made me question how and why women's supply runs out or that they just don't produce any? Through research I found that stress, maternal obesity, postpartum hemorrhage, cesarean delivery, infection/illness with fever, diabetes, thyroid condition, or prolonged/strict bed rest during pregnancy could affect a woman's delay in milk production (University of Rochester Medical Center, 2015). 

Breastfeeding in public seems to be more accepted around the world than here in the United States according to (http://www.007b.com/public-breastfeeding-world.php). There are some countries, like Saudi Arabia, that it is not accepted for woman to openly breastfeed in public - they prefer the woman to do that in private. Whereas, in other countries woman will walk down the street breastfeeding and not be covered by anything because woman's breast are not considered sexual objects (http://www.007b.com/public-breastfeeding-world.php). I enjoyed reading about the acceptance of breastfeeding around the world from citizens of the specific countries. This really opened my eyes to how we (as Americans) have a negative view of woman who breastfeed in public and what we can do to change. 

There is a World Breastfeeding Week sponsored by UNICEF which is an annual celebration that highlights the critical importance of promoting the value of breastfeeding globally, nationally and at the community level (UNICEF, 2014). I will be providing the director of my program the information about World Breastfeeding Week and working with her to see how we can incorporate this within our program. We have family support workers that can help our expecting mothers when it comes to the importance of breastfeeding their little ones.

References:

Female Intelligence Agency. (2015). Breastfeeding in public around the world. Retrieved from http://www.007b.com/public-breastfeeding-world.php

UNICEF. (2014). Breastfeeding. Retrieved from http://www.unicef.org/nutrition/index_24824.html

University of Rochester Medical Center. (2015). Milk Production and Your High-Risk Baby.      Retrieved from http://www.urmc.rochester.edu/encyclopedia/content.aspx?ContentTypeID=90&ContentID=P02390