This may seem like a dry, legalistic-sounding (maybe even boring) document but it says something that I find really exciting: Resolve that the Academy advise pediatricians not to provide formula company gift bags, coupons, and industry-authored handouts to the parents of newborns and infants in office and clinic settings Until we have donor milk readily…
Category: advocacy
Breastfeeding and the law – where to get information?
It can be hard to know how a breastfeeding mother and family will be affected by laws. First of all it can be hard to find out what the laws say. Then knowing what they say isn’t enough – most of us that aren’t lawyers (that is, most of us) need help understanding what the…
Working and pumping: where to find out more about the law
Last year a new law was passed that requires employers to provide a space and break time for breastfeeding mothers to pump for their babies. These links have information about what the law provides and how to file a complaint. One nice thing about the law is that it acknowledges the variation between mothers in…
Where’s the mother?
I have been listening to a talk by Dr. Joy Noel-Weiss on how breastfeeding professionals talk about breastfeeding (GOLD11 conference). She notes that we refer to the breast instead of mother’s or your breast. She also points out that many or even most breastfeeding photos show just the baby with maybe a little bit of…
Breastpumps and flexible medical spending accounts
The exclusion of breastpumps from accepted flexible medical spending account spending made the front page of the New York Times this week. Breastfeeding advocates have been frustrated by this apparent lack of support for breastfeeding but a thoughtful post from Alison Stuebe of the Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine points out how complicated this issue is:…
World Breastfeeding Week
World breastfeeding week is the first week in August. It is a chance celebrate mothers nurturing their babies as well as a chance to let people know how important breastfeeding is to mothers’ and babies’ health. The US Surgeon General used it as a chance to announce her plan to be a breastfeeding advocate This…
Social barriers – post from ABM
It is easy to say “all babies should be breastfed” but then ignore the social context that mothers have to work within as they try to breastfeed their babies. This post from the Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine does a great job addressing this issue. Here is a taste: These issues transcend breastfeeding. Why, for example,…
USA health care reform act: breastfeeding support in the workplace
The United States Breastfeeding Committee has posted FAQ’s about the provisions in the new health care reform legislation for workplace support of breastfeeding mothers. They summarize the provision: Section 4207 of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (also known as Health Care Reform), states that employers shall provide breastfeeding employees with “reasonable break time”…
Nursing IS Normal – in the courtroom
Kudos to the mother, the lawyers, and the judge that treated nursing as something normal: WAUKESHA – A mom from Milwaukee was pleading guilty to a crime in a Waukesha County courtroom when her baby became fussy and hungry, so she proceeded to give her baby a breast-fed meal while giving her guilty plea. Read the…
Go Madison!
Madison made the national news in a New York Times article about infant mortality. Apparently Madison has had a dramatic decline in infant mortality among African American babies — to the point where their mortality rate is comparable to white babies. “This kind of dramatic elimination of the black-white gap in a short period has…
Madison Breastfeeding Help 