page_title: Breastfeeding
section_title: Location
hierarchical_section_title: Breastfeeding / Process / Location
caption_attribution_description: Hospital room bassinet
context_page_description: Breastfeeding, also known as nursing, is the feeding of babies and young children with milk from a woman's breast. Health professionals recommend that breastfeeding begin within the first hour of a baby's life and continue as often and as much as the baby wants. During the first few weeks of life babies may nurse roughly every two to three hours, and the duration of a feeding is usually ten to fifteen minutes on each breast. Older children feed less often. Mothers may pump milk so that it can be used later when breastfeeding is not possible. Breastfeeding has a number of benefits to both mother and baby, which infant formula lacks.
  Deaths of an estimated 820,000 children under the age of five could be prevented globally every year with increased breastfeeding. Breastfeeding decreases the risk of respiratory tract infections and diarrhea for the baby, both in developing and developed countries. Other benefits include lower risks of asthma, food allergies, and type 1 diabetes. Breastfeeding may also improve cognitive development and decrease the risk of obesity in adulthood.
context_section_description: Most US states now have laws that allow a mother to breastfeed her baby anywhere. In hospitals, rooming-in care permits the baby to stay with the mother and simplifies the process. Some commercial establishments provide breastfeeding rooms, although laws generally specify that mothers may breastfeed anywhere, without requiring a special area. Despite these laws, many women in the United States continue to be publicly shamed or asked to refrain from breastfeeding in public. In the United Kingdom, the Equality Act 2010 makes the prevention of a woman breastfeeding in any public place discrimination under the law. In Scotland, it is a criminal offense to try to prevent a woman feeding a child under 24 months in public.
  While laws in the U.S. that passed in 2010 which required that nursing mothers who had returned to work be given a non-bathroom space to express milk and a reasonable break time to do so, as of 2016 the majority of women still did not have access to both accommodations.  As of 2019, some establishments have placed small portable nursing "pods" with electrical outlets for nursing pumps to provide their places of business with a comfortable private area to nurse or express milk.  The Minnesota Vikings were the first (2015) NFL franchise to implement the lactation pods. In 2019 it was reported that the pod manufacturer had placed 152 of them in 57 airports.  
  In 2014, newly elected Pope Francis drew worldwide commentary when he encouraged mothers to breastfeed babies in church. During a papal baptism, he said that mothers "should not stand on ceremony" if their children were hungry. "If they are hungry, mothers, feed them, without thinking twice," he said, smiling. "Because they are the most important people here."
caption: Rooming-in bassinet
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