Families who breastfeed their children need support, according to guidance from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), and this requires social and systemic changes with regard to access to the workplace and food stigma.
The most recent guidance from the association of pediatricians highlighted the recommendation that babies be exclusively fed human milk for the first six months of life before introducing other nutritious foods.
“Human milk is all a baby needs for the first six months of life,” said Joan Younger Meek, lead author of the reports, written by the AAP’s section on breastfeeding.
“Breast milk is unique in its nutrients and protective effects, and actually quite remarkable when you look at what it does for a child’s immune system development,” explained Meek, who is an emeritus professor of clinical sciences at Florida State University. College of Medicine.
Research suggests that the benefits of human milk feeding include reduced rates of lower respiratory tract infections, severe diarrhea, ear infections and obesity. Babies who are breastfed also have a lower risk of sudden infant death syndrome, according to the AAP.
But not everyone can feed their babies using human milk exclusively, the organization acknowledged.
Some parents may have trouble producing enough milk or latching on to the baby properly, or the baby may not feed, said Jason Jackson, a neonatologist at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio. The work environment or social stigmas can make breastfeeding impossible, Meeks said.
In all cases, it is the job of healthcare professionals to provide the best evidence-based information while meeting the individual needs of each family.
“Families deserve unbiased support, information and help to guide them in feeding their babies,” Meeks said.
Structural and policy changes can bolster much of that support, the guidance said.
Breastfeeding is already a medical norm, and community leaders and health professionals need to work together to make it a social norm, Jackson said.
Medical support and workplace protection
Families should get the support they need from medical professionals and protection from workplace barriers by choosing to feed their babies breast milk for at least the first six months — and up to two years, the AAP said.
The sad reality is that there is stigma around breastfeeding, Jackson said.
Western society considered formula feeding a luxury because parents didn’t have to be at home to feed the baby but could hire someone else, he said.
This cultural perception has become a major factor in much of the world, not being structured to support families who wish to breastfeed.
If families in the United States get parental leave, time is usually short, Jackson said. The first few weeks with a baby are important for establishing milk production, because latching and breastfeeding helps stimulate production, he said.
And if parents choose to pump, it’s important that they have access to comfortable and safe places to do so in the workplace, he added.
The guidance recommends policies that address these issues, as well as the right to breastfeed in public and face-to-face day care; and the right to breastfeed in day care centers and lactation rooms in schools.
Insurance coverage is another crucial policy area that the AAP deems necessary to support breastfeeding. This coverage should extend to pumps and lactation assistance as per the guidance.
It should also extend to more families who want to provide their babies with human milk from milk banks, Jackson added.
Breast-feeding
Gender-diverse families may have even more difficulty accessing a human milk diet for their babies, according to the guidance.
An important change that can help facilitate better collaboration with these families is being aware of which language each family prefers when it comes to food. For example, the term “breastfeeding” may be more accurate when talking about lactation in gender-diverse families, the guidance said.
Although all humans have breasts, the term has become associated with a gender, Jackson said. And there are some people who transition but retain their reproductive organs and can carry and produce milk for a baby, she added.
Having a baby as a trans man can contribute to gender dysphoria, but much of that feeling comes from breastfeeding, Jackson said.
“We’re not saying forever call it breastfeeding,” Jackson said. But “one way to help eliminate some of the gender dysphoria is to talk to the transmale or genderqueer community, asking them what (the term they use) while they’re breastfeeding if they choose to produce human milk.”
For parents who choose not to feed human milk or who do not breastfeed, there are still benefits to the physical act of holding their baby while they eat, Jackson said.
Skin-to-skin contact unites baby and parents, breastfeeding or not, and has been shown to have positive impacts such as reducing the baby’s stress levels and pain, he said.
overcoming barriers
With all the social and biological considerations in mind, it’s important to talk about your infant feeding plan early, even before the baby arrives, Jackson said.
Knowing what you hope to do and what the plan is if there are barriers can help give families a head start, he added.
Breastfeeding is often a challenge, with more than 80% of families initiating breastfeeding but more than 60% not meeting their goals, said Lori Feldman-Winter, chair of the AAP’s breastfeeding section.
But finding support can help you feed your baby the way you want to, she added in an email. Feldman-Winter is a professor of pediatrics at Cooper Medical School at Rowan University in Camden, New Jersey.
That challenge is further complicated by the systemic racism that has contributed to disparities in human milk use, she said. None of the United States goals for breastfeeding have been met for people of color and Indigenous families for Healthy People 2020, the 10-year goals for improving health set by the U.S. Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Feldman said. -Winter.
For those who are having trouble getting enough milk to feed their baby, Feldman-Winter emphasized that any use of human milk is better than none.
“The benefits of breastfeeding and using human milk are ‘dose dependent,’ meaning either is good and more is better,” she said by email.
Source: CNN Brasil
