Oh, mother!
By: Jo The Headstrong
Tags: Maternal Health, Work, Motherhood, Work Life Balance, Breastfeeding

Working mothers have the unique task of balancing work and family life.

The inability of workplaces to recognize their multifaceted roles often drive mothers away from their jobs — or their maternal duties. Indeed, finding the appropriate time and space to breastfeed is difficult for nursing employees.

To address this issue, part of the Healthy People 2020 (HP2020) Objectives aims to increase the proportion of infants who are breastfed nationwide.

Though the current proportion of breastfed infants meets HP2020’s target goal, 60% of mothers do not breastfeed for the duration they intend. A key culprit is the lack of supportive lactation policies within the workplace.

A provision of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) was passed in 2010 which required employers to provide “reasonable break time” and “place” to express milk.

In light of lactation inequities afore mentioned, it is clear the ACA provision must be improved to properly accommodate mothers. Given the larger impact of ill health on a mother and child, promoting lactation equity would result in better nationwide health.

Image from Op-Med

Breastfeeding provides infants with nutritional benefits incomparable to formula. Indeed, breastfeeding reduces the risk of several diseases as well as Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) consequently lowering infant mortality rates.

It is also argued that breastfeeding is involved in lowering the risk of cognitive impairment among children, which likewise reduces potential disability adjusted life years (DALYs) from learning disabilities. Mothers, too, benefit from breastfeeding.

In self-report measures, breastfeeding mothers report greater reductions in anxiety, negative moods, and stress compared to formula-feeding mothers. With this, it can be deduced that maternal mortality rates decrease as postpartum stress is alleviated.

In brief, the community benefits are clear: the quality of life of both mother and child are enriched with breastfeeding.

Given the clear benefits of expressing milk, current policy should work towards expanding lactation support programs for employees; this includes lactation rooms and child care. Incentivizing and educating workplaces of the physical and psychological benefits to their employees — as well as the financial benefits of supporting them — will encourage greater rates of breastfeeding.

With this, working mothers are more likely to return and stay at work; companies with lactation support programs boast an average retention rate of 94%. This would ultimately save workplaces the costs of rehiring and training new employees.

Any negative impact from policy encouraging lactation equity will impact the workplace itself — albeit in the short-term. Indeed, workplaces without lactation-friendly rooms are likely to experience greater up-front expenses in regards to creating adequate spaces than workplaces already equipped with it.

Though it can be argued that some productivity is lost when mothers express milk, absenteeism is decreased in the longterm. Certainly, the financial gains and health benefits of breastfeeding far outweighs that of any initial up-front costs to a company.

Considering the numerous benefits from breastfeeding, its significant role in maternal and child health, and its consequent impact on mortality rates, QALYs, and DALYs nationwide, it is of utmost priority.

Truly, breastfeeding is the foremost preventative measure from infant disease and early learning disabilities. Supplementing current policy to encourage the development of better workplace spaces and programs would increase breastfeeding rates, which would be translated into better health outcomes for the maternal and infant community.