Feeding Baby in the Hospital
August is Breastfeeding Awareness Month, but a new report from the Centers for Disease Control suggests that women who want to breastfeed are not getting proper encouragement from hospitals. In fact, several typical hospital maternity ward practices make breastfeeding more difficult.
For example, two-thirds of hospitals isolate newborns from their mothers, limiting opportunities for breastfeeding. In 80 percent of hospitals, healthy babies who are successfully breastfeeding are given formula, even when it's medically unnecessary.
Conversely, only 14 percent of hospitals have a written policy on breastfeeding, and less than one in 25 do everything possible to encourage breastfeeding. Leaving the newborn with its mother in the first hours, for example, is critical, and many hospitals don't consistently do that.
Child health experts are using the report as an opportunity to renew calls for hospitals to encourage breastfeeding whenever possible, so infants can have the medical benefits. They say hospitals should allow rooming-in and should avoid giving formula to infants who are thriving without it.