Breastfeeding laws, Las Vegas Sun,Oct. 4, 1997

Got milk? But what kind of milk is best for babies Lisa Ferguson Saturday, Oct. 4, 1997 | 6:20 a.m. It's a practice as old as time. So why is it that 1990s mothers are having to be reminded that breast-feeding their babies is a natural, healthy alternative to bottle-fed formula? "We've lost the social support that breast feeding is OK," says Teri Stockinger, founder of the Breastfeeding Task Force of Nevada. The non-profit organization is comprised of about a dozen local health care professionals and "lactation consultants" -- accredited professionals representing area hospitals or private practices who assist and educate mothers about breast-feeding. The five-year-old task force, whose mission is to promote breast-feeding's health and financial benefits to the medical community and the public, wrapped up a two-day conference this weekend at Sunset Station hotel-casino. It was attended by more than 50 health care professionals from Nevada and surrounding states who counsel breast-feeding women. "The nurses and the (hospital) staff ... need to understand certain basics of of breast-feeding in order to give helpful information," Stockinger explained during a recent task force meeting on the grounds of Valley Hospital. And also, to encourage new mothers to give breast-feeding a try. According to a 1995 survey conducted by Ohio-based Ross Laboratories, which produces Similac brand formula, nearly 60 percent of all newborns nationwide were breast-fed before being discharged from the hospital. But by age 6 months, only 21.6 percent were still being nursed by their mothers. "We're competing against formula companies who give out diaper bags and freebies" to persuade mothers to use their products, says Stockinger, who is also a registered nurse and certified lactation consultant in private practice at Best Beginnings in Henderson. "We have nothing to give them besides (the knowledge) that you can provide all of the milk your baby needs for free. They just don't buy that." Even touting the numerous health benefits of breast-feeding -- for both mother and child -- is not always a persuasive enough argument. The nutritional advantages of breast milk are "very specific," says Dr. Ruth Lawrence, a professor of pediatrics and obstetrics at the University of Rochester School of Medicine in New York. Lawrence is also one of a dozen physicians who are part of the American Academy of Pediatrics' work group on breast-feeding, which meets biannually to update the academy's policies and procedures. "We like to say that breast-feeding is the first immunity a newborn baby gets after birth," she says, explaining how certain antibodies found exclusively in breast milk help guard infants against ear, respiratory, gastrointestinal and urinary tract infections and certain allergies. Data also suggests that breast milk protects against several chronic childhood diseases, as well as cancer and diabetes, and boosts brain development. Mothers who breast-feed are less likely to suffer postpartum hemorrhaging. It stimulates a reduction of the uterus back to its normal size, as well as postpartum weight loss by utilizing about 500 calories per day. There is also a notable decrease in breast and ovarian cancer rates and osteoporosis among women who nursed their children. "It's good for everybody," Lawrence says, "and costs less in health care benefits because (mother and child) don't get ill and ... they don't need medicine and they don't get hospitalized." Social stigma But since formula was first mass-marketed in the 1940s, Stockinger says women have been "discouraged" from breast feeding. "It was considered pagan. It was (for) low-income families. It was for people who were not keeping up with the trends." In the years since, breast-feeding has become "backwards," adds task force member Esther Saltzman, also a registered nurse and certified lactation consultant in private practice. "Women used to watch all of the women in their family nurse (their children) -- their grandmothers nursed, their mothers nursed, their children nursed," Saltzman says. "The introduction of formula stopped this chain of people knowing what to do." Adds Stockinger: "Not everyone just picks up a baby and it latches on. It is a learned process, which many people don't understand." Then again, many people don't understand breast-feeding at all. That may be why countless mothers throughout the country have found themselves at the center of controversy in recent years, over whether or not breast-feeding in public violates states' indecency and lewdness laws. Since 1993, 15 states have passed legislation which, for the most part, grants women the right to breast-feed "in any public or private location where the mother is otherwise authorized to be," as stated in Nevada's statute passed two years ago. "I think it's a women's rights issue," says Sen. Mark James, R-Las Vegas, who drafted the bill. "I think that time has proved its seriousness and its need and now other states have jumped on the bandwagon." California, which passed its bill this summer, was the latest. Nevada's bill was especially important to Las Vegas, Stockinger says. "It's OK to do anything with (breasts in production shows and strip clubs) down on the Strip, but God forbid you feed a baby with them, which is what they are meant to do." Breast-feeding "is a natural, normal, physiologically-expected act that somehow has become culturally vulgar," she says. "We have to go back and say, 'This is different that just taking your shirt off' " in public. "We recognize in our society that breasts carry a (sexual) connotation," Stockinger says. "We have to somehow get beyond the social jokes so that people realize (breast-feeding) is not just a nice thing to do -- it's a very important thing to do." "The purpose of these laws is to change that public perception," explains Elizabeth Baldwin, a Miami attorney considered among the nation's leading experts on breast-feeding and the law, who helped draft several states' bills. Some women, usually young mothers, Baldwin says, "will choose not to breast- feed because they don't want to deal with the ostracism that goes along with breast-feeding. It's a very humiliating experience to be told (by a stranger) to stop breast-feeding. That mother is likely to wean (her baby off breast milk) and conclude that she has to give a bottle if she is going to go out in public." Occupational obstacles Or back to work. Though more and more companies nationwide are accommodating nursing mothers -- such as designating rooms where they can go during breaks to nurse -- others have been slow in responding to their needs. Of the legislation passed, only Texas' bill included a section encouraging breast-feeding in the workplace by allowing businesses to promote themselves as "mother-friendly" once they develop work-site breast-feeding policies. "It's been a real rough go," says Marilyn Kessler, a breast-feeding mother who returned to work waiting tables at a local casino restaurant following the birth of her son, David, three months ago. Kessler was not willing, however, to forgo breast milk and use formula. Like many mothers, she totes a battery-powered breast pump to work to use during breaks. But where in the facility could she pump in privacy? After posing the problem to her bosses, "they said that they didn't have a place for me," the 31-year-old Kessler recalls. "I ended up in the bathroom stall which is ... not very private and not very sanitary. I had one lady knocking on the door asking 'Are you all right?' because the pump makes so much noise. "I told my managers, 'This isn't working out. You guys need to find me a place.' I didn't really give them a choice," says Kessler, who now retreats to a manager's office. But the runaround Kessler endured in order to continue breast-feeding David was worth it, she says. "When he's done eating and he's laying there looking at you with total satisfaction ... it's a wonderful feeling (knowing) that I'm the only one who can do that for him."