Healthy foods best for breastfeeding mom, baby

Breast milk is ideal for babies. Nationwide, around 79 percent of mothers try to breastfeed, but only half are breastfeeding exclusively three months after giving birth. While Washington has higher than average rates of mothers attempting to breastfeed, more than 40 percent of new moms in Benton and Franklin counties are supplementing by the second day of their babies’ lives, an alarming statistic.

Effective support for new mothers and early intervention when problems occur have large impacts on breastfeeding duration. In the past, new mothers could get help from experienced family and friends. This is not necessarily the case today, but help is available at http://womenshealth.gov/breastfeeding/index.html. During weekdays, anyone with questions can call the Family Health Hotline at 800-322-2588.

Support is also available in our community, and there is ongoing work to improve breastfeeding programs. The Benton-Franklin Health District Women, Infants and Children and the Tri-City Community Health Women, Infants and Children received a grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to work with hospitals and maternal health care providers to improve breastfeeding support in the first days following birth. Their program is modeled after the World Health Organization’s “Ten Steps to Successful Breastfeeding,” an evidence-based set of health care practices. Implementing these steps will increase the likelihood that women will achieve their personal breastfeeding goals.

Breastfeeding provides babies with their first inoculations against death and disease, and improves lifelong health. Mothers also benefit, with decreased risks of osteoporosis, breast and ovarian cancers, and Type 2 diabetes.

Benefits extend beyond improved health. Breastfeeding mothers invest in the cognitive and social capacities of their newborns, increasing their children’s IQ scores and leading to greater school achievements. Breastfeeding contributes to equity and reduces poverty by giving children a nutritional head start, resulting in greater adult earning power and driving future economic growth. Breastfeeding is so significant that if it were invented today, the inventor would deserve Nobel Prizes in medicine and economics; and all these advantages are accentuated when breastfeeding moms eat healthy foods, like the included Slow Cooker Black Bean and Sweet Potato Chili recipe.

Annie Goodwin, supervisor preventative health services at the health district stated, “Everyone has heard the phrase ‘breast is best.’ But how does that translate to the public perception of breastfeeding and the country’s breastfeeding rates? If we look at breastfeeding as ‘best,’ it becomes something extra, a bonus, a prize to be achieved by those most dedicated. By comparison, feeding newborns formula seems just fine — even normal. But what if instead we said ‘breast is normal?’ After all, it is the biologically-intended food for infants.”

That’s why she and others are striving to establish a new normal: where breastfeeding is commonplace, and where every woman can get the support she needs to be as successful as possible.

This story was originally published March 9, 2016 at 6:06 AM with the headline "Healthy foods best for breastfeeding mom, baby."