I was just pointed to this article by Melissa Bartick over at the Huffington Post about the impact of the birth experience on initializing breastfeeding. Dr. Bartick was one of the co-authors of the recent article in the journal Pediatrics on the cost of suboptimal breastfeeding in the US.
If 90% of US families could comply with medical recommendations to breastfeed exclusively for 6 months, the United States would save $13 billion per year and prevent an excess 911 deaths, nearly all of which would be in infants ($10.5 billion and 741 deaths at 80% compliance).
Bartick and Reinhold, 5 April 2010
I recently began the training program to become a Certified Lactation Educator Counselor which is a standalone certification that will enable me to teach breastfeeding classes and do basic breastfeeding counseling, but which is also the first step in the process of becoming a board certified Lactation Consultant. I’ve written about this before (and I really need to gather up those posts) but we had a very rocky start to our breastfeeding relationship, and it was because I was passionate about – or obsessed with – the idea of breastfeeding that we got through those rough periods.
I meet women through the twins club who have questions about breatfeeding, and many of them make it work. And many of them don’t. I don’t want to preach a guilt-inducing rant about how Breast is Best, but I sincerely wish that more women got the support they deserve to make the choice to breastfeed their babies.
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