Recently, the American Academy of Pediatrics concluded that new mothers with less maternity leave were not only less likely to breastfeed long term, but to initiate breastfeeding at all.

"The Effect of Maternity Leave Length and Time of Return to Work on Breastfeeding" found that 69.4 percent of mothers with one to six weeks of leave initiated breastfeeding, compared to 74.2 percent of those who had 13 weeks or more of leave.

Luckily, California was the first state to offer new parents Paid Family Leave to care for a child for up to six weeks at 55 percent of their regular pay. According to a recent evaluation of PFL's first six years in California, workers who used PFL reported that they breastfed twice as long as those who did not. Interestingly, the same report, "Leaves that Pay," found that many workers' awareness of PFL is limited and that some who are aware of it don't take it because they feared negative consequences from their employers. (Despite that most employers reported that PFL had a "positive effect" or "no noticeable effect" on factors like productivity, profitability and morale.)

Because breastfeeding has so many benefits for both baby and mom, it's nice to see that there are, indeed, ways to encourage it. Sure, the idea and reality of lugging a bulky, noisy breast pump back and forth to a small room several times a day to express milk is daunting - but if mother's know they can put that off even longer then, hopefully, they'll be more inclined to start their babies on breast milk at birth.

Evelyn V. Martinez

Chief Executive Officer
First 5 LA

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