Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Health District encourages mothers to breastfeed babies

The Southern Nevada Health District has a message for new moms: Don’t hesitate to breastfeed your infants.

The district’s board of health recently approved a resolution that “welcomes and encourages breastfeeding as a benefit to both infants and their mothers,” according to a news release.

The move comes on the heels of the U.S. surgeon general’s call to support breastfeeding across the nation by making it easier for mothers to do so.

About 75 percent of mothers in the United States begin breastfeeding, but only 13 percent of babies are exclusively breastfed at the end of six months, the U.S. Surgeon General’s Office reported.

Key barriers to breastfeeding include lack of knowledge, lactation problems, poor family and social support, social norms that don’t encourage breastfeeding, embarrassment, employment and child care issues, and health services.

The health district noted that it provides lactation stations at its facilities for its staff and that breastfeeding is permitted at any Southern Nevada Health District public health center.

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