Covering Women's Issues – Changing Women's Lives

Sunday, May 12, 2013 SIGN IN SIGN UP RSS

• HOME
• Culture & Tradition
  • Arts
  • Our History
  • Religion
  • Cultural Trends/Popular Culture
  • Traditions
  • Aging
  • Marriage/Divorce
  • Parenting
  • Lesbian and Transgender
• Media
  • 21 Leaders for the 21st Century
  • Cheers and Jeers
  • Journalist of the Month
  • Books
  • Media Stories
• Perspectives & Views
  • MomAgenda
  • SisterSpace
  • Commentary
  • Our Daily Lives
  • Uncovering Gender
• Politics & Influence
  • Campaign Trail
  • Education
  • Equality/Women’s Rights
  • International Policy/United Nations
  • Leadership
  • Military
  • Peace
  • The Nation
  • The World
  • War
  • Washington Outlook/Congress/White House
• Work & Labor
  • Business
  • Economy/Economic Policy
  • Entrepreneurship
  • Equal Pay/Fair Wage
  • Labor
  • Retirement
• Justice
  • Crime Policy/Legislation
  • Domestic Violence
  • Genital Mutilation
  • In The Courts
  • Immigration
  • Incarceration
  • Law
  • Rape
  • Prostitution and Trafficking
  • Sexual Harassment
• Health & Science
  • Health
  • Medicine
  • Reproductive Health
  • Abortion
  • Mental Health
  • HIV/AIDS
  • Athletics/Sports
  • Women in Science
  • Environment
• SERIES

August is National Breastfeeding Awareness Month, and in California, lactation advocates have special reason to celebrate. Still, activists in the state are pushing for better laws and working to diminish disparities.

Highest Number of Hospitals

As a result of these improvements, California now boasts the country's highest number--and highest percentage--of hospitals that are Baby-Friendly, a designation birthing facilities can win if they successfully promote breastfeeding among their patients. Facilities must meet rigorous standards set by the World Health Organization and the United Nations to receive this designation, such as not accepting any financial support or product donations from formula companies; keeping mothers and infants together in the same room after delivery; and giving newborns no formula unless doctors deem this medically necessary.

Of the 96 Baby-Friendly facilities in the United States, 30 are located in California. And among the five hospitals most recently designated, four are in the state.

As such victories are celebrated, California health advocates are also setting their sights on new goals.

One is to achieve greater racial parity in lactation outcomes. Breastfeeding rates are better in California than they are on average in the United States, with 85 percent of mothers in the state initiating breastfeeding (compared to 74 percent overall) and 53 percent breastfeeding at the six-month mark (compared to 43 percent overall), according to the CDC.

Even so, in California, as is true in the rest of the country, breastfeeding rates among Hispanic and African American women lag behind those of the state's white women. The recent CDC report indicated that in California, 86 percent of white women try breastfeeding and 61 percent continue it for six months. Among Hispanic mothers, 85 percent start breastfeeding and 51 percent continue, while among black women, 67 percent initiate lactation and 29 percent continue.

Health advocates say rates are also divided along socioeconomic lines, and are significantly lower among women with lower incomes.

Achieving More Balance

To bring these numbers into balance, California breastfeeding advocates have launched a variety of initiatives.

"We're reaching out to low-income communities and speaking at black churches," said Lindsey. "We're translating pamphlets into Spanish and working to hire more lactation consultants who are women of color."

In 2009, California's WIC program helped achieve better racial and socioeconomic balance by requesting and securing a six-fold increase in funding for its peer counseling program, which trains women who are WIC recipients to teach other women how to breastfeed.

"In a single year, we've increased our number of peer counseling sites from 15 to 53," said Laurie True, executive director of the California WIC Association. "Many sites are headed by black and Latina women, and they are receiving the most advanced training and certification possible."

Breastfeeding advocates' second aim is to improve services in hospitals that still lag behind. A 2008 University of California, Davis study found that in some California hospitals, formula is still given to 90 percent of newborns. And although 87 percent of California mothers initiate breastfeeding, only 42 percent are still breastfeeding exclusively by the time they are discharged from the hospital after delivery.

In response, Los Angeles County recently offered increased funding to hospitals that succeed in winning Baby-Friendly status and the California WIC Association has warned its clients to steer clear of hospitals known for having substandard practices.

Health advocates also hope to strengthen California's breastfeeding laws even more.

"Within the next year, we may also introduce a bill that would require all California hospitals receiving state funding to attain Baby-Friendly designation," said True. "This hasn't been done in any other state. But in California, we're trying to pave the way and to set the highest standards possible."

Would you like to Comment but not sure how? Visit our help page at http://www.womensenews.org/help-making-comments-womens-enews-stories.

Molly M. Ginty (http://mollymaureenginty.wordpress.com) is a freelance writer based in New York City.

For more information:

California Breastfeeding Coalition:
http://www.californiabreastfeeding.org/

SUBSCRIBE DONATE

PRINT