Part way through World Breastfeeding Week (this week), child advocates have seen a major victory as well as a challenge. On Monday the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released guidelines on preventative services to be available to women with no additional co-pay under the Affordable Care Act. These eight requirements, recommended by the Institute of Medicine, include comprehensive lactation support and counseling and the costs of renting breastfeeding equipment. The necessity of those particular provisions was quickly re-affirmed when the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released a new study Wednesday, showing that most hospitals do not adequately encourage breastfeeding.Childhood obesity is an epidemic in our country; a CDC fact sheet for Wisconsin shows that 25% of children in the state are either overweight or obese. Breastfeeding for 9 months reduces a baby’s odds of becoming obese by more than 30%. Stopping breastfeeding too early also increases risk of diabetes, as well as respiratory and ear infections. Women who breastfeed are also less likely to develop breast and ovarian cancer. According to the CDC report, low breastfeeding rates add an estimated $2.2 billion to national health care costs annually.

Hospitals are a critical place for women and infants to either be helped or hindered in breastfeeding. The report from the CDC showcases the Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative, which encourages supports to help mothers breastfeed. Unfortunately, fewer than half of US hospitals follow recommended practices to encourage breastfeeding. In Wisconsin, only 10-19% of births in 2011 took place in “baby-friendly facilities.”

Encouraging breastfeeding — both by eliminating co-pays for lactation support and counseling and encouraging hospitals to follow the recommendations of the Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative — will improve the health and well-being of women and children throughout the country in a cost-effective and relatively easy way. What better time to recognize this than World Breastfeeding Week?

Sara Eskrich