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Lactation Stations
Stores and Centers Dedicated to Breastfeeding Success By Teri Brown
.Y., believes that lactation centers will only become more common as time goes on, especially as more and more hospitals and health care providers are getting on the breastfeeding bandwagon.
"Although there is a national effort to promote and support breastfeeding [Health and Human Services Blueprint for Action on Breastfeeding and Healthy People 2010], we have yet to fully embrace breastfeeding as the cultural norm," Miller says. "As health care providers, we should promote and support breastfeeding the same way we encourage the use of car seats and childhood vaccinations."
Though the center is a hospital-based program, it also has an outpatient center off site. Miller believes there is no question that the services their center offers have helped women to continue breastfeeding and to overcome difficulties.
"While the majority of American women are leaving the hospital breastfeeding, fewer than half are continuing to breastfeed at 6 months," she says. "It's not enough to tell women that breastfeeding is beneficial; we need to ensure that practices are in place to assist and guide them, as well. Through education we hope that women get off to a good start."
Lactation centers offer a place where women can go to ask questions, find support and browse through the latest in breastfeeding supplies. They also bring breastfeeding to the forefront of the neighborhoods in which they are located. By their very existence, they give credibility to breastfeeding and further the cause of children's health.
"The availability of breastfeeding services has increased over the years as more and more information becomes available about the benefits of breastfeeding," Miller says. "Encouraging women to breastfeed and supporting them to continue breastfeeding for as long as they can is one of the cheapest forms of health care insurance available."
