Image courtesy of public health maps

This year’s theme for National Breastfeeding Awareness Month is “Many Voices United.”

Women’s Health Nurse Practitioner and Certified Nurse Midwife at Greene County Medical Center Valerie Martin says the national theme is about women working together to implement policy and system changes to ensure that there is support and resources in place for families to succeed with breastfeeding. She says of the 83-percent of U.S. newborns that receive breastmilk, only 25-percent are exclusively breastfeeding for six-months.

Martin says one of the reasons why women find it difficult to breastfeed is due to inadequate spaces for them to breastfeed in public or pump breast milk in the workplace. She suggests using a blanket to cover up when nursing and choosing to sit in the back of public places like restaurants. Martin talks about providing a safe space for pumping at the workplace.

“The employer should be able to find an empty room – ideally that locks – for a woman to pump breast milk on her breaks without having to sit in an unsanitary bathroom stall or go to her car. And the other thing is, is finding somewhere to plug in the pump. Some pumps have to be plugged in, in order to work.”

Martin encourages women who want to breastfeed to feel comfortable in their surroundings and ask their employer about a safe place for them to pump.