Breastfeeding promotion

[6] The United States began incorporating benefits specific to breastfeeding promotion into its Women, Infants, and Children program in 1972.

In 1989, WIC state agencies began being required to spend funds targeted at breastfeeding support and promotion, including the provision of education materials in different languages and the purchase of breast pumps and other supplies.

[17] When combined with nutrition support, particularly the WIC program in the United States, the presence of peer counselors can have a significant effect on incidence of breastfeeding among low-income women.

The Internet has served as both a vector for formula advertisement and a means by which women can connect with other mothers to gain support and share experiences from breastfeeding.

Breastfeeding initiation rates among this population are higher for less acculturated immigrants; Hispanic women who have been in the United States for longer are less likely to breastfeed.

[35] Ethnicity, age, education, employment, marital status, and location are reported factors of delayed breastfeeding and infant under nutrition.

Low- income mothers are specifically at risk for under nutrition and high mortality rates amongst their infants because they replace breast milk with formula.

Studies suggest that scarce financial and social resources are consistent with the high mortality rates amongst the infants of low-income mothers.

[34] Most women aren't aware that absence in breast milk put their infant at risk for serious health problems in the future.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) implements programs that promote and support breastfeeding and the benefits for infants and children.

[47] Participants of the various studies reported that medical staff directed them towards the hospital's vast supply of formula milk instead of receiving lactation consultations even when they wished to breastfeed.

[44] Adolescent mothers have particular needs due to levels of education, employment, exposure (or lack thereof) to breastfeeding, self-esteem, support from others,[47] and of cognitive and psychological immaturity.

[44] The potential of social embarrassment can be present in the minds of expecting adolescent mothers and may be a major factor that influences their choice of feeding method.

Therefore, new teenage mothers need more concerted prenatal anticipatory guidance, specialized lactation education and an increase of face-to-face postpartum support.

Positive perception of inpatient postpartum nursing care has been found to be an important influence in a young mother's success with breastfeeding.

The mothers reported that they felt better cared for and more motivated to initiate and sustain breastfeeding when nurses were friendly, patient, respectful and understanding of their individual needs.

In 2015, State Assembly Member Cristina Garcia from Los Angeles, introduced an amendment which required an employer to provide break time to accommodate employees to express breast milk for the employee's infant child, breast-feed an infant child or address other needs related to breast-feeding.

On a global scale, recommendations have been made to educate school age children using curriculum that promotes healthy nutrition which includes breastfeeding.

The World Health Organization's Global Strategy for Infant and Young Child Feeding recommend education authorities help form positive attitudes through the promotion of evidence-based science regarding the benefits of breastfeeding and other nutrition programs.

In addition, groups or individuals worldwide are able to "pledge" that they will undergo promotion activities related to World Breastfeeding Week in order to show their support for the initiative.

With these guidelines in mind, UNICEF believes that with optimal breastfeeding practices, up to 1.4 million deaths of children under 5 in the developing world can be prevented.

[62] Exclusive breastfeeding (EBF) refers to the practice of feeding an infant on breastmilk alone for the first six months of life, without supplementing it with other food or even water.

[66] Breastfeeding is a cost-effective intervention that reduces the infant mortality and morbidity by lowering the risk of sickness from acute and chronic infections.

[68][69] Furthermore, Yılmaz, Elif et al.,[70] in their clinical investigation report states, despite all the recommendations of the WHO, the rates of breastfeeding initiation and duration are still far from expectations worldwide.

[73] This has caused hospitals in different regions of the world to face unsolicited advertising from breast-milk substitute manufacturers, which inhibits their ability to make unbiased, evidence-based recommendations to patients.

[77] Peer counseling and support programs have been shown to have a positive effect on exclusive breastfeeding rates in rural Bangladesh.

[82] In Canada, the provinces of Quebec and New Brunswick have mandated the implementation of the Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative, known as the Baby-Friendly Initiative (BFI) in Canada, which is designed to support best practices in hospitals and communities to ensure informed feeding decisions and enable families to sustain breastfeeding.

[87] It has been argued that, in hindsight, the campaign for the universal promotion of breastfeeding prior to the acknowledgement of HIV contraction via mother-to-child transmission (MTCT) fails to consider affected mothers in developing countries who have limited or no access to procedures that would minify the chance of spreading the virus to their young ones.

Initiatives for a decreased percentage of infants contracting HIV include administering Antiretroviral therapy (ART) to their mothers and providing milk formula in hand with proper water sterilization techniques to prevent disease from contamination.

Studies have found that marketing of infant formula in hospitals makes it likelier that a woman will breastfeed for a shorter amount of time due to the perceived convenience of bottle-feeding.