SPECIAL REPORT: Few Women Breast-Feed Despite Proven Benefits

There are many proven benefits for breast-fed babies. According to the Centers for Disease Control, only 13% of mothers in El Paso are still breast-feeding when their babies are 6-months old, despite mounting advice from doctors to continue far beyond that.

“It’s incredible to know this food is custom made for him, for his body and for his needs. We’re still sort of a unit even though he’s living in this world now. We’re still connected physiologically,” said mother Rubi Orozco Santos in a recent interview while she held her ten-month-old baby Roberto.

Orozco Santos has been exclusively breast-feeding Roberto since birth. “Even the best food scientists aren’t able yet to replicate all the amazing benefits of breast-feeding,” she said.

While it’s amazing now, Orozco Santos said the beginning was incredibly difficult.

“I didn’t know what I was doing. I’ve never used my body to feed someone before. Dealing with the pain and no sleeping and everything else that comes with the postpartum period. I remember crying when I would hear him start to get hungry again, ‘like I’m not ready. I’m still in pain. I need a break.'”

It takes time for a mother and baby to get in tune. The baby has to latch correctly and milk buildup can leave some mothers in pain a few weeks before they find a good rhythm. Breast-feeding comes with social challenges, too.

“We are ambivalent about breasts in the United States. We see them in Carl’s Jr. commercials, we see them in beer commercials, the underwear we buy is to enhance breasts but not for breast-feeding. Breasts are organs. Your liver filters blood, your kidney filters urine and your heart pumps blood and your breasts make milk. They’re body organs with a function but we don’t see them that way,” said Libby Berkeley, a Certified Lactation Consultant who teaches at Texas Tech El Paso.

Berkeley also runs the Baby Cafe, a place where women can go for breas-tfeeding help or as Berkeley puts it, to “feel normal.”

“People are harassed after a year,” said Berkely. “They’re told, ‘ugh! are you still breastfeeding that child?’ Well. the baby doesn’t know it was one year to him, it’s just food.”

The World Health Organization recommends babies be breast-fed for at least two years and beyond. The american academy of pediatrics recommends at least one year.

“(Breast milk) builds their immune system. One of those factors in human milk that’s not replicated is the essential fatty acids that grow the brain. And so breast-fed babies are smarter,” said Berkeley.

Smarter and healthier.

Research shows breast milk builds up a baby’s immune system, curbs allergies, asthma, obesity, even some cancers. For mothers, breast-feeding reduces the risk of certain reproductive cancers like breast cancer and ovarian cancer.

Work is a big reason so few women breast-feed. Many working moms like teachers, doctors and nurses just don’t have time.

Breast pumps allow working moms to stay on their body’s schedule and save milk for babies in someone else’s care.

The Affordable Care Act now requires employers with more than 50 employees to provide a private space and break time for breast-feeding moms to pump. Employers, however, don’t have to provide extra break time to breast-feeding mothers.

“I’ll try not to pressure myself with a deadline and just let nature guide us,” said Orozco Santos. “It’s amazing. It’s like living a miracle everyday.”

Orozco Santos has a blog about healthful eating and ancestral traditions. Click on the link under “related content” in this article.