Experts say pressures cause moms to stop breast-feeding

Despite the health benefits of breast-feeding, many mothers face lifestyle and work pressures that make it difficult for them to continue nursing, local experts say.

A study published Monday in the journal Pediatrics said that if 90 percent of American women breast-fed their infants for the first six months, it would save $13 billion a year - and the lives of 913 babies.

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that mothers breast-feed for at least six months and preferably up to the first year because it reduces infections, the incidence of sudden infant death syndrome, diabetes, obesity, asthma and some cancers.

In New York, 76.4 percent of women nurse their infant at some point but that falls to 9.6 percent who are still exclusively breast-feeding at six months, according to 2009 federal data.

The reason, experts said, is that women don't have enough support in society and the workplace.

"Between working and family and their personal life and a whole mess of things women have to do, it's hard," said Laura Kyrillidis, director of nursing for perinatal and pediatric services at Nassau University Medical Center in East Meadow.

New York State passed a law in 2007 that requires employers to provide women time and a place to pump breast milk at the workplace. That became a national requirement with the passage of the recent health care bill. And last summer, the state passed the Breast-feeding Mothers' Bill of Rights that requires new mothers to be informed of breast-feeding options before they deliver. It also bans formula makers from pressuring new mothers while in the hospital.

Kathleen Vandeventer, lactation coordinator at Stony Brook University Medical Center, estimated that 70 percent to 80 percent of women on Long Island leave the hospital having breast-fed their infant.

But that percentage falls off for many reasons, said Dr. Anthony Battista, a pediatrician in Garden City. "The problem lies in the social situation afterwards. Everybody's got busy lives, going back to work or transporting the older sibling." Amy Jo Southworth, 35, of Sayville, said she plans to continue breast-feeding her 8-week-old daughter when she returns to her job in a month. "There really is no other option for me," she said. "I know it's best for my children."