The Importance of Supporting Mothers Who Breastfeed

by Rachel B. Barrientos, Student Nurse, and Paula Bylaska-Davies, RN, MS, Assistant Professor
Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences

Breastfeeding has always been an important part of infant health; around the world mothers have been breastfeeding their children since the beginning of the human race. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that children are nursed for at least the first 12 months of life. Furthermore, the World Health Organization recommends an even longer period of 2 years (CDC, 2010). According to the Centers for Disease control, only 22.7% of infants born in 2006 were still at least partially breastfeeding at 1 year of age (CDC 2010).

There are many health benefits to breastfeeding children such as lower mortality rates, ideal nutritional values, and long term benefits such as healthy weights and higher intelligence later in life. The positive aspects of breastfeeding extend to maternal health as well, such as lower rates of breast and ovarian cancers and decreased occurrences of post-partum depression. Nurses play an important role in encouraging and supporting breastfeeding; they have multiple interactions with the mother during pre and post-natal appointments where they can advocate for breastfeeding through teaching.

Breast milk is the ideal source of nutrition for growth and development, providing newborns and infants with nutrients in natural forms. The longer a child is breastfed the better the results; cessation of breastfeeding before six months increased the risk of pneumonia, doubled the risk of recurrent otitis media, and resulted in higher urinary tract infections in female babies. Long term benefits of breastfeeding were found to include lower blood pressure and cholesterol levels, as well as higher performances on intelligence tests (Bai, Middlestadt, Peng, & Fly, 2009). Potentially, 1.3 million lives can be saved each year by mothers that continue to breastfeed beyond six months (Bai et al., 2009). It is also reported that “early cessation of breastfeeding increases infants' risks for childhood obesity, gastroenteritis, necrotizing enterocolitis, leukemia, otitis media, severe lower respiratory infections, sudden infant death syndrome, and types 1 and 2 diabetes” as well as incurring an average of $475 more in health costs in the first year than those infants exclusively breastfed (Bartick, Stuebe, Shealy, Walker, & Grummer-Strawn, 2009).

The maternal benefits to breastfeeding include lower risk for breast and ovarian cancers, type 2 diabetes, and postpartum depression for mothers that breastfed their infants (Bartick et al., 2009). Emotionally, mothers benefit from breastfeeding by forming a stronger bond with their baby. A research study reported that the number one advantage of breastfeeding stated by mothers was “helping bond with baby” (Bai et al., 2009).

Early cessation of breastfeeding is identified by the Department of Health and Human Services as a problem. A goal included in Healthy People 2010 and again in Healthy People 2020 aimed to increase the proportion of mothers who breastfeed their babies ever, at six months, and at one year (U.S Dept. of Health and Human Services, 2010). Despite frequent contact with health care professionals, the first two weeks of life require increased breastfeeding education and support, as this is when breastfeeding has a high cessation rate (Bartick et al., 2009). Identifying factors that affect cessation of breastfeeding will aid in increasing maternal support and in turn increase child and maternal health.

Out of all healthcare providers, nurses spend the most time with mothers during the pre and post-partum period, as well as care for the infants following delivery. Bartick et al. (2009) reported that the nursing staff at “88% of facilities reported that they taught most mothers techniques of breastfeeding...” However, 65% advised women to limit suckling, 45% gave pacifiers to healthy infants, and 24% regularly gave milk supplements to the majority of healthy infants (Bartick et al., 2009). Nurses can encourage the advancement of breastfeeding by increasing breastfeeding teaching to 100% and decreasing detrimental practices such as limiting suckling, pacifier use, and formula supplements. Cont'd